BANGKOK — The capital city’s music fans are more than ready for an epic 12-hour outdoor music festival which will welcome nearly 20 acts next month.
Organizers behind Maho Rasop Music Festival (“entertainment” in Thai) on Saturday announced a complete lineup consisting of 19 international and local musical acts who will take an outdoor stage in November in Phra Ram IX area.
The marquee talent among them is London quartet The Vaccines, who opened for world-famous acts such as The Rolling Stones, Muse and Arctic Monkeys. Check out some of their best songs “If You Wanna,” “Post Break-Up Sex” and “Norgaard.”
More reasons not to miss the event: UK shoegaze icons Slowdive will show off their skills through nostalgic ‘90s tracks “When the Sun Hits,” “Alison” and the recent mesmerizing “Sugar for the Pill.” American singer-songwriter Ernest Greene, known professionally as Washed Out, will bring out everything from bedroom pop to chillwave.
Upbeat Melbournian electronic group Miami Horror, soul-infused pop outfit PREP and Taiwanese three-piece math rock Elephant Gym will also join.
R&B sensation Dean, dubbed a dark horse talent among internationally famous South Korean artists, will make a comeback after performing in Bangkok last year.
The list continues with local acts highlighting tropical-inspired indie pop Gym and Swim, shoegaze group Hariguem Zaboy and up-and-coming pop quintet Temp.
The one-day event runs from noon through midnight on Nov. 17 at Live Park Rama 9, located on Rama IX Road. Tickets, which have been selling in phases, areavailable online for 3,990 baht.
The event was first announced in July, with 200 blind tickets sold out.
The organizers of Maho Rasop are Bangkok-based gig promoters Have You Heard?, Seen Scene Space and music streaming service Fungjai.
This image released by Universal Pictures shows Ryan Gosling in a scene from 'First Man'
Nearly a half-century has passed since the majestic moment when Neil Armstrong stepped carefully onto the lunar landscape, left foot first, taking that giant leap for mankind.
Whether you were alive then and glued to the TV, or relived it later through that iconic, grainy NASA footage, what you probably remember is just that: The majesty.
You’re probably not thinking much about the deafening noise, the claustrophobia, the terror of blasting off in a rickety sardine can that could fail at any moment for any of a thousand reasons. Or the fact that Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin could have ended up stranded, left to die on the moon; President Richard Nixon had a speech ready for that dark scenario.
You will, though, be thinking of these things as you watch “First Man,” the latest installment in director Damien Chazelle’s meteoric career — and sorry for the space pun, but it’s entirely apt. An intimate character study that somehow becomes grand just when it needs to, “First Man,” based on the book by James R. Hansen with a script by Josh Singer, is a worthy successor not only to Chazelle’s “Whiplash” and “La La Land,” but to the astronaut films that precede it, like “Apollo 13″ and especially “The Right Stuff.”
It’s also, amazingly, the first feature film about Armstrong. Chazelle’s partner here is Ryan Gosling, who dials down his obvious star wattage to give an internalized, fully committed performance as the “reluctant hero,” as Armstrong’s own family described him.
Gosling’s task here is not merely to give dimension to a mythical American hero. He also has to play a man who famously kept his emotions in check. That may not be an asset for a movie character, but sure was an asset for the first human to set foot on another world.
And that’s because this stuff was, well, terrifying! We begin in 1961, during Armstrong’s test pilot days. Taking a hypersonic X-15 up for a spin, he’s suddenly in trouble; he can’t get back down. “Neil, you’re bouncing off the atmosphere,” comes the rather concerned voice from below.
He makes it back, though, barely breaking a sweat. As for us, we’re irretrievably rattled.
From the heavens we go to a small home office, where Armstrong is on the phone, trying to find help for his toddler daughter, ill with cancer. His grief over her fate will remain a theme of the film until the end. But it remains unspoken, even to his stoic wife, Janet, played here with subtlety and grit by the wonderful Claire Foy.
Seeking a fresh start, Armstrong becomes an astronaut in NASA’s Gemini program. On Gemini 8, he successfully docks his spacecraft with another before suffering a harrowing in-flight emergency.
The split-second that separates giddy success from terrifying failure, the tiny, claustrophobic spaces, the flimsy materials, the shaking, the roaring, the positively ancient-looking technology — Chazelle illustrates all of this, indelibly. And we’re forced to wonder: How did they ever make it into space even once?
On the ground, meanwhile, we see what it’s like to be a loved one. During Gemini, Janet explodes at Armstrong’s boss, Deke Slayton (an excellent Kyle Chandler): “You’re a bunch of boys making models out of balsa wood! You don’t have ANYTHING under control.”
Then there’s the devastating launchpad testing disaster that killed Armstrong’s fellow astronauts, Gus Grissom, Roger Chaffee and Ed White. Hearing the news on the phone, Armstrong clutches a wine glass so tightly, he breaks it and gashes his hand.
But if he has qualms about going forward, he doesn’t show it. “Your dad’s going to the moon,” Janet tells their boys. Does that mean he’ll miss the swim meet, one of them asks? Foy’s eyes flare with anger as Janet insists — indeed, commands — that Neil sit down and tell the kids he may never come home.
She’s right: One of the more chilling scenes is a brief look at NASA bosses reviewing the speech Nixon will give if the men can’t get off the moon, and what he’ll say to the “soon-to-be widows.”
And then, the mission. That famous walk to the launchpad, the astronauts waving, the applause. You hold your breath imagining how Chazelle will pull off the landing itself. With a granite quarry in Georgia standing in for the moonscape, it’s as grand and beautiful as you’d want. And yet it’s not a mere recreation of what we’ve seen before.
There’s been a distracting controversy over whether Chazelle “ignores” the precise moment when astronauts planted a flag. It’s silly for many reasons, but especially because this isn’t a movie about symbols, or myths.
It’s about men — especially one man. After the grandeur of the moon landing, an event that still boggles the mind, the movie ends on a note of extreme quiet: just two people staring at each other.
It’s a bold choice, but it feels right. Sometimes a movie feels biggest when it goes small. And this one feels big. Chazelle is only 33. One can only imagine how far he’ll travel.
“First Man,” a Universal Studios release, has been rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America “for some thematic content involving peril, and brief strong language.” Running time: 141 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.
BANGKOK — An online cartoonist famed for his adorable characters lampooning Thai politics will have his works displayed in public for the first time at an artspace next month.
A curator said the event will celebrate his prolific works as an artist who touches on various subjects that made the news.
“Kai Maew has been publishing his works for years now, so it’s time we compile his works for a display,” Lalita Hanwong said in an interview. “Many of his works don’t only reflect politics, but they also involve social and economic issues.”
She added that the event would include exclusive content. However, the author himself will likely be absent.
“I don’t think he would come,” Lalita said. “He’s cautious.”
Despite the huge popularity of his webcomics, Kai Maew’s identity remains an elusive subject. In an interview with Khaosod English a year ago, the author would only say he’s a man in his 30s.
His characters mirror real figures in the circus of Thai politics and current events, from “General” and his sidekick spokesman to a square-face man who seems to be hiding in nearly every national controversy.
Considering the political nature of Kai Maew’s works, security officers are surely expected to pay a visit, Lalita said, though she believes the event itself won’t be forced to cancel.
“If we organize it in the name of art, it should be okay,” she said. “Kai Maew’s works are also open to many ways of interpretation.”
“Khai Maew X: Kalaland” will run 1pm to 6pm from Nov. 7 through Nov. 22 at Artist+Run gallery in Yannawa district. An opening night is set for 6pm on Nov. 10. The gallery can be reached from BTS Chong Nonsi and BRT Thanon Chan. Entry is free.
Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha’s official Facebook cover page.
BANGKOK — Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha is now officially on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, a junta deputy secretary said Sunday.
Prayuth’s Deputy Secretary-General Puttipong Punnakan said the accounts are directly overseen by the junta leader.
“The prime minister wants to connect to citizens in a simple, relaxed way that’s not too stressful,” he said. “He wants to communicate with citizens up-close without issuing statements that are too formal, but wants to show that he cares.”
The social media blasts are what critics consider yet another form of campaigning for elections slated for Feb. 24. In the past few months, he’s visited various provinces, chatted with people on the BTS, exercised in Lumpini Park, met with AKB48 girl group, posted slogans used by Thaksin Shinawatra – and on Friday even told a Tokyo audience to stand up and stretch.
Though parties aren’t allowed to campaign for the elections until mid-December, some have criticized the government for allowing pro-junta politicians – who are reportedly convincing MPs to join the pro-junta Palang Pracharat party – off the hook. Just last week, three of Prayuth’s ministers joined the pro-junta party.
Puttipong said social media posts would be only once or twice a week.
“The page will publicize his work and more relaxed sides and lifestyle that people may not have seen before,” Puttipong said.
Although Prayuth did open a Facebook page in August 2017, posts in his new page will be written by himself. The page is also linked to an Instagram and Twitter page and a website. The first post on the new Prayut Chan-o-cha Facebook page came Sunday night.
“Since most of us communicate through Facebook regularly, I decided to open my personal account to communicate my policies and the government’s work, as well as give helpful information,” it reads. “If you have suggestions, want to exchange opinions or need me to fix any problems, you can write to me here.”
The page, which by Monday had garnered more than 47,000 likes, shows a photo of Prayuth holding an “I Love You” sign with a crowd of children, along with a logo of a checkmark in Thai flag colors.
“Prayuth Chan-ocha. Stable, prosperous, enduring for our Thailand,” reads the accompanying slogan.
Prayuth’s official website is the sleekly-designed PrayutChan-o-cha.com. There’s an interactive timeline feature about the general’s life, galleries of Prayuth stock photos and even a poll about what policies people would like to see enacted.
The English version of the website is under construction.
“Hello to my beloved citizens on the Twitterverse. You can tweet to me and exchange opinions about social problems. I also have a website at prayutchan-o-cha.com so click to see it when you have time,” His first tweet read Monday morning.
“Please stay for a long time, Uncle Tuu,” Facebook user Pimchanok Pornsukjantra wrote on his page, referring to his nickname. “I promise to be a good student, and to grow up to be a good citizen who doesn’t cheat others.”
Of course, social media is a double-edged sword, and though some posted words of encouragement, there was also scathing criticism.
“Don’t cheat on the elections. If you’re going to take advantage of other parties this much, why don’t you just make yourself the winner? If you’re going to be shameless, go all the way and make your mark in Thai history,” Facebook user Akgnit Peacharat wrote on Prayuth’s Facebook post.
Photos of Anusorn Peraket released by Chiang Mai police. Some details have been censored.
CHIANG MAI — Police arrested a street musician accused of exposing himself to multiple foreign tourists in Chiang Mai town center, an investigator said Monday.
Anusorn Keraket, 54, was apprehended after police received complaints that he showed his genitals to many Thai and foreign tourists, Maj. Arnon Cherdchutrakulthong of Chiang Mai City Police told reporters.
Arnon said CCTV footage caught Anusorn during one of his acts, prompting police to track him down and arrest him. He was charged with indecent exposure.
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and his Vietnamese counterpart Ngo Xuan Lich, left, review an honor guard in January in Hanoi, Vietnam. Photo: Tran Van Minh / Associated Press
WASHINGTON — By making a rare second trip this year to Vietnam, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis is signaling how intensively the Trump administration is trying to counter China’s military assertiveness by cozying up to smaller nations in the region that share American wariness about Chinese intentions.
The visit beginning Tuesday also shows how far U.S.-Vietnamese relations have advanced since the tumultuous years of the Vietnam War.
Mattis, a retired general who entered the Marine Corps during Vietnam but did not serve there, visited Hanoi in January. By coincidence, that stop came just days before the 50th anniversary of the Tet Offensive in 1968. Tet was a turning point when North Vietnamese fighters attacked an array of key objectives in the South, surprising Washington and feeding anti-war sentiment even though the North’s offensive turned out to be a tactical military failure.
Three months after the Mattis visit, an U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, the USS Carl Vinson, made a port call at Da Nang. It was the first such visit since the war and a reminder to China that the U.S. is intent on strengthening partnerships in the region as a counterweight to China’s growing military might.
The most vivid expression of Chinese assertiveness is its transformation of contested islets and other features in the South China Sea into strategic military outposts. The Trump administration has sharply criticized China for deploying surface-to-air missiles and other weapons on some of these outposts. In June, Mattis said the placement of these weapons is “tied directly to military use for the purposes of intimidation and coercion.”
This time Mattis is visiting Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s most populous city and its economic center. Known as Saigon during the period before the communists took over the Republic of South Vietnam in 1975, the city was renamed for the man who led the Vietnamese nationalist movement.
Mattis also plans to visit a Vietnamese air base, Bien Hoa, a major air station for American forces during the war, and meet with the defense minister, Ngo Xuan Lich.
The visit comes amid a leadership transition after the death in September of Vietnam’s president, Tran Dai Quang. Earlier this month, Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party nominated its general secretary, Nguyen Phu Trong, for the additional post of president. He is expected to be approved by the National Assembly.
Although Vietnam has become a common destination for American secretaries of defense, two visits in one year is unusual, and Ho Chi Minh City is rarely on the itinerary. The last Pentagon chief to visit Ho Chi Minh City was William Cohen in the year 2000; he was the first U.S. defense secretary to visit Vietnam since the war. Formal diplomatic relations were restored in 1995 and the U.S. lifted its war-era arms embargo in 2016.
The Mattis trip originally was to include a visit to Beijing, but that stop was canceled amid rising tensions over trade and defense issues. China recently rejected a request for a Hong Kong port visit by an American warship, and last summer Mattis disinvited China from a major maritime exercise in the Pacific. China in September scrapped a Pentagon visit by its navy chief and demanded that Washington cancel an arms sale to Taiwan.
These tensions have served to accentuate the potential for a stronger U.S. partnership with Vietnam.
Josh Kurlantzick, a senior fellow and Asia specialist at the Council on Foreign Relations, said in an interview that Vietnam in recent years has shifted from a foreign and defense policy that carefully balanced relations with China and the United States to one that shades in the direction of Washington.
“I do see Vietnam very much aligned with some of Trump’s policies,” he said, referring to what the administration calls its “free and open Indo-Pacific strategy.” It emphasizes ensuring all countries in the region are free from coercion and keeping sea lanes, especially the contested South China Sea, open for international trade.
“Vietnam, leaving aside Singapore, is the country the most skeptical of China’s Southeast Asia policy and makes the most natural partner for the U.S.,” Kurlantzick said.
Vietnam’s proximity to the South China Sea makes it an important player in disputes with China over territorial claims to islets, shoals and other small land formations in the sea. Vietnam also fought a border war with China in 1979.
Traditionally wary of its huge northern neighbor, Vietnam shares China’s system of single-party rule. Vietnam has increasingly cracked down on dissidents and corruption, with scores of high-ranking officials and executives jailed since 2016 on Trong’s watch.
Sweeping economic changes over the past 30 years have opened Vietnam to foreign investment and trade, and made it one of fastest growing economies in Southeast Asia. But the Communist Party tolerates no challenge to its one-party rule. Even so, the Trump administration has made a focused effort to draw closer to Vietnam.
When he left Hanoi in January, Mattis said his visit made clear that Americans and Vietnamese have shared interests that in some cases predate the dark period of the Vietnam War.
Malaysian politician Anwar Ibrahim speaks before a court hearing at Federal Court in September in Putrajaya, Malaysia. Photo: Yam G-Jun / Associated Press
KUALA LUMPUR — Malaysian Prime Minister-in-waiting Anwar Ibrahim has taken his oath as a lawmaker, marking his return to active politics three years after he was imprisoned for sodomy in a charge critics said was politically motivated.
The swearing-in ceremony in parliament Monday followed Anwar’s huge win in a by-election Saturday in the southern coastal town of Port Dickson. The seat was vacated after a lawmaker from his party quit to pave the way for Anwar’s political comeback.
Anwar, 71, was designated as successor to Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad after the two men set aside a bitter feud and united to capture a stunning victory in May’s general election. Anwar was freed and received a royal pardon days after the polls. Mahathir has said he expects to step down in two years.
Officials on Sunday unload the bodies after a helicopter carrying bodies of those killed in Gurja Himal mountain arrives at the Teaching hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal. Photo: Niranjan Shrestha / Associated Press
KATHMANDU — The nine climbers who died during a storm on a Nepal mountain included the first South Korean to summit all 14 Himalayan peaks over 8,000 meters without using supplemental oxygen.
Seoul’s Foreign Ministry confirmed on Monday that Kim Chang-ho was among the dead but has not yet disclosed the names of the four other South Koreans. Four Nepalese guides also were killed when a storm swept the climbers’ base camp on Gurja Himal mountain Friday.
Rescuers had retrieved the climbers’ bodies on Sunday after weather cleared. The body of one of the guides was taken to his village, while the eight others were flown to Kathmandu.
Grieving family members gathered at the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Nepal’s capital where the bodies were to be autopsied before being handed to their families.
The South Korean ministry told reporters strong winds during the storm blew the victims from their base camp off a steep cliff on Friday. Word of the destruction got out Saturday morning, and helicopters were sent. They were not able to land due to the continuing bad weather but spotted the bodies, which were retrieved Sunday.
The climbers were attempting to scale the 7,193-meter (23,590-foot) peak during the autumn climbing season. Spring and autumn are the optimal climbing seasons in Nepal in between the harsh winter and summer monsoon.
The Himalayan mountain range includes all 14 of the world’s peaks that rise above 8,000 meters, and only a few dozen climbers have made verified, successful ascents of them all.
Junta chairman Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha in September in Bangkok.
BANGKOK — The junta’s 20-year National Strategy was announced with immediate effect Saturday on the Royal Gazette.
It requires that governments between 2018 to 2038 adhere to strategies detailed by a committee appointed by junta leader Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha.
The plan covers six areas, namely national security, national competitiveness, human resources development, social equality, quality of life and the environment and development of state administrative systems.
Critics have said the plan is a tool to prolong the power of the military junta – which staged a coup in 2014 – for 20 more years.
“This junta strategy will restrict life for the next 20 years. The plan was drafted by a handful of people,” iLaw, a law-reform advocacy group, wrote on its Facebook page Saturday shortly after the plan came into effect.
The group added that the plan would come in handy if a pro-junta government emerged after the promised February elections.
“If the next government is not from the junta, then the strategy committee members can use the national strategy plan to control the government,” it said.
Primary students at a Ratchaburi school in a February 2011 file photo. Photo: Office of the Prime Minister.
BANGKOK – A new ministerial directive was announced Friday banning the expulsion of pregnant students and allowing them pregnancy leave.
The directive, announced Friday on the Royal Gazette – covers all schools, colleges and universities in the kingdom.
The new education ministry directive requires that all educational institutions provide support for pregnant students by offering them flexible education programs and counselling.
Pregnant students may also be allowed to transfer to another institution if it suits them.
Until the new regulation passed Friday, schools would commonly expect pregnant students to drop out, with some even being expelled.
The new directive also includes providing sex education to prevent pregnancy among students.
