Junta Thanks Compliant Thai Media With Gift – a Muzzle

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January 28, 2017 3:09 pm

Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha leads reporters in singing a classic pop song Sept. 15, 2016, just after an hours-long address boasting outrageously about his regime's successes at Government House in Bangkok.

After nearly three years of serving as unpaid junta apologists, many Thai media outlets this week had a very rude awakening. The junta’s appointed National Reform Steering Assembly wants every media professional – journalist, TV host, radio voice – to have to earn a license. They also want top bureaucrats to sit on a national media council for further regulations, or restrictions, depending on one’s point of view.

Frantic meetings among six major media associations, including the Thai Journalists Association, or TJA, took place this week and gave a thumbs-down to the proposed bill that would probably hand a death blow to any remaining critical coverage of the military junta.

Licensing journalists means many hard-headed reporters and editors may find themselves without a license, illegal and unfit for the job. What Thailand would be left with, in this dystopian dream of junta leader Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha, would be lame journalists willing to not just toe the state’s line but actively promote their autocratic culture.

TJA is partly responsible for this mess. Its sitting president during the 2014 coup, a political reporter by the name of Pradit Ruangdit from the Bangkok Post, had no qualms accepting the junta leader’s appointment as a member of the junta’s first reform council two years ago.

Another former TJA President still sits on the current junta’s appointed Constitution Drafting Committee, and the hospitality shown by many Government House beat reporters to the dictator-cum-premier puts concierges of some top hotels to shame. They literally sing along with Prayuth and once even dressed as school children to delight him on a special occasion.

There is no time for schadenfreude, however, as the potential repercussions of such a bill would be disastrous to the already restricted free press already burdened by the amended Computer Crime Act and the good old lese majeste laws. All these media associations, TJA included, need all the support from the public in order to thwart this latest assault to press freedom.

Licensed “professional” journalists are the stuff of dictatorships and have no place in a free land.

In Thailand, such state-approved reporters would hardly pose hard-hitting questions to Prayuth and his successors. There will probably be zero doubt cast on the illegitimacy of the military dictatorship by such licensed professional journalists. Anyone with improper – read critical – attitudes toward nation, religion and monarchy would most likely fail to obtain such a license. Yes. That includes me.

Thailand will instead be left with lame “professional journalists” who will toe the line dictated by the state. Think Pravda of the old Soviet Union or the New Light of Myanmar before The Lady came to power.

Currently, even without this bill, Thai media, this writer included, are already exercising a disappointingly alarming level of self-censorship on anything mildly critical of the monarchy. Such levels of self-censorship are reminiscent of totalitarian states like North Korea. A citizens like Jatupat “Pai” Boonpattararaksa has been behind bars for a month just for sharing a biography of the new king produced by BBC Thai on Facebook.

The Nation newspaper on Wednesday published a letter to the editor under the name Kip Keino decrying the erosion of free speech in the two English print newspapers.

“Both English-language daily newspapers in Thailand have restricted their forums, which used to allow readers’ comments. In contrast I see that a daily newspaper in Namibia devotes two full pages each day to comments from readers..,” wrote Keino, adding that while both papers still have letters to the editor spaces, they “have stopped allowing online responses and other such commentaries.”

Is this the inevitable fate of Thailand – to have ersatz press freedom and equally ersatz professional licensed journalists? I have no crystal ball, but those who are concerned about Thailand’s free press, the dwindling right to debate and articulate freely should take notice. The junta is increasingly behaving like a giant python slowly but gradually stifling its prey by wrapping and squeezing freedoms, expression and now the free press to death.

The showdown is coming. The stakes are high. It’s not just the future of a free press but citizens’ rights to access critical news about the powers that be that is at stake.

30 Families Lose Homes to Khlong Toei Slum Fire

By

Teeranai Charuvastra, News Chief

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January 28, 2017 2:07 pm

Firefighters at the scene of a fire Friday night in the capital's Khlong Toei district.

BANGKOK — At least 30 families were living in tents Saturday after their homes in an impoverished quarter of Bangkok were destroyed in a blaze.

The fire ravaged a 286-household slum next to Wat Saphan Canal in the capital’s Khlong Toei district at about 9:30pm on Friday, police said. The cause and source of the fire are still under investigation.

Firefighters spent about an hour before the fire was brought under control.

Local volunteers responded to the fire shortly after it started but could not contain the flames because two fire extinguishers provided to the community did not work, according to Manager Online.

No one died in the incident, said Acharawadee Chaisuriwat, Khlong Toei district chief.

Families made homeless by the fire are now living in tents and authorities are providing them with necessary goods and an initial disaster relief fund of 10,000 baht per family, she said.

Neighborhoods around the old port are in many places densely packed shanties.

About 200 people were displaced in October 2013 when a domestic dispute ended with a man torching his own home, which then burned about 50 other residences.

In 1991, three people died in a chemical fire and explosion that destroyed more than 600 domiciles.

Asia Marks Chinese New Year With Prayers, Incense, Fireworks (Photos)

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Associated Press

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January 28, 2017 1:52 pm

MALAYSIA: An ethnic Chinese girl holds offerings on the first day of Lunar New Year celebrations Saturday at a temple in Kuala Lumpur. Photo: Lim Huey Teng / Associated Press

BEIJING — People in China and throughout Asia are heading to temples and fairs to wish for an auspicious start to the Lunar New Year.

Thousands gathered at Beijing’s major temples on Saturday, the first day of the Year of the Rooster. Wearing heavy winter coats, they lit incense sticks and bowed as they prayed for good fortune and health.

Read: Where to Celebrate Chinese New Year in Bangkok?

Beijing’s sprawling temple fair opened at Ditan Park, where empty tree branches were festooned with red lanterns and traditional goods and foods were for sale.

Ethnic Chinese and others around the world also marked the holiday with celebrations.

South Korea: North Korean refugees and their family members bow to respect their ancestors Saturday in North Korea as they celebrate the Lunar New Year at the Imjingak Pavilion, near the demilitarized zone of Panmunjom, in Paju, South Korea. Photo: Ahn Young-joon / Associated Press — SOUTH KOREA: North Korean refugees and their family members bow to respect their ancestors Saturday in North Korea as they celebrate the Lunar New Year at the Imjingak Pavilion, near the demilitarized zone of Panmunjom, in Paju, South Korea. Photo: Ahn Young-joon / Associated Press

Myanmar: Local Chinese artists perform a dragon dance during cerebrations to mark Lunar New Year on Saturday in Yangon. Photo: Thein Zaw / Associated Press — MYANMAR: Local Chinese artists perform a dragon dance during cerebrations to mark Lunar New Year on Saturday in Yangon. Photo: Thein Zaw / Associated Press

JAPAN: People offer prayers during celebrations of the Lunar New Year Saturday at Chinatown in Yokohama, near Tokyo. Photo: Koji Sasahara / Associated Press

HONG KONG: Chicken feet snacks shop owner Leung Kin-kung chops off chicken feet Monday in Hong Kong. Photo: Vincent Yu / Associated Press

Contrition for Silpakorn’s Nazi Chic Stink Falls Short on Holocaust Memorial Day

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Pravit Rojanaphruk, Senior Staff Writer

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January 28, 2017 1:17 pm

Silpakorn University students in Bangkok dress in September 2016 as Mao Zedong’s Red Guards from the bloody Cultural Revolution in the 1960s. Photo: Washirawit Santipiboon / Facebook

NAKHON PATHOM — Sitting in front of an audience gathered to reflect on the atrocity visited last century upon millions of people, mostly Jews, during World War II at a university in Nakhon Pathom was Sopanut Somrattanakul.

The fourth-year arts student was preparing for an act of atonement that, when finally offered to the audience, would ring hollow for its defensiveness in lieu of actual apology.

Just four months earlier, he shot to infamy for running the show when his peers appeared on Facebook in photos in which they performed Nazi salutes in Communist Red Guards uniforms, including one Hitler-alike student complete with fake mustache and self-satisfied look.

Read: Thai University Students Cosplay as Red Guards and Nazis, Again (Photos)

On Thursday, west of Bangkok at Silpakorn University’s Sanam Chandra Palace Campus, a day before Holocaust Memorial Day, Sopanut recounted what happened that day as a big misunderstanding.

Sopanut Somrattanakul on Thursday at Silpakorn University's Sanam Chandra Palace Campus in western metropolitan Bangkok. — Sopanut Somrattanakul on Thursday at Silpakorn University’s Sanam Chandra Palace Campus in western metropolitan Bangkok.

“We do not harbor such thinking. But the whole thing wasn’t thought out well,” he said minutes before going on stage to speak and show contrition for the September incident. “It was the last day [of welcoming ritual] and they were just letting steam off.”

Sopanut was in charge of welcoming the freshmen, a rite of passage involving heavy hazing known as rub nong, between August to September. For the last day, he said they decided to make fun of dictatorship in general with one dressing like Hitler and everyone doing Nazi salutes. He said it was not the most obvious choice for them.

Sopanut, who didn’t participate in costume himself, said fanatical Fascist and Communist fashion was chosen because in Thailand, they’re universally associated with dictatorship. The 23-year-old senior student said Thais of his generation do not make a direct connection between dressing up like Hitler or doing Nazi salutes to that of supporting the holocaust or Nazi ideology.

Soon after the incident became infamous, Sopanut said the Israeli Embassy contacted the university. The message relayed was that they understood that there was no intention to cause harm. The university’s president, Chaicharn Thavaravej, publicly apologized however, for what he described as “irresponsible actions.”

A graduating student poses for a photo before a mural of superheroes including Adolf Hitler set up at Chulalongkorn University in July 2015 to mark graduation ceremonies.

That was back in September. Now, four months later, the university held an art exhibition and program to commemorate the holocaust in collaboration with the Embassy of Israel on Thursday.

After giving a speech and touring the art exhibition led by the university’s president and with Sopanut as guides, Israeli Ambassador Simon Roded said it was “amazing” such a “minor incident” could lead to all this.

“This is amazing!” said Roded, himself the grandchild of holocaust survivors.

Roded said he detected no expression or manifestations of ideological support among these students.

“But they don’t make the connection,” the envoy said, adding that there’s a lack of deeper understanding that people in Europe and the West take for granted.

It wasn’t the first time such a sequence played out.

Chulalongkorn University had to apologize in 2013 after its graduating seniors posed for photos making Nazi salutes in front of a mural of “superheroes” which included Adolf Hitler. The university would go on to also host a Holocaust Memorial Day event, also attended by Israeli Ambassador Simon Roded, where Thailand’s need to understand history to better engage the world was discussed.

A man walks down Soi Rang Nam on Jan. 7 in Bangkok.

International Holocaust Memorial Day marks the day the largest Nazi concentration camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, was liberated by the Red Army in 1945.

Foreign residents are often aghast to see the type of Nazi imagery openly displayed in Thailand that would be taboo back home. Foreign parents were aghast in Chiang Mai in 2011 when students at a school there dressed in elaborate SS costumes for an entire Nazi-themed school parade. But the same awareness is not widespread in Thailand, where Hitler appears on T-shirts in the spirit of Darth Vader, Che Guevara or Mao Zedong.

Expressions of antisemitism are rare.

School girls dressed in Nazi uniforms march at the Sacred Heart Preparatory school in Chiang Mai. Photo: Simon Weisenthal Center

When it came time to take the stage, rather than overtly apologize, Sopanut fell back on this context defensively. He said knowing what Hitler did and what the holocaust was about was different from cultural sensitivity. That connection is not automatically made, even if you know what Hitler did, the bespectacled student insisted, adding that it will take more than just knowledge to prevent some repeating the same in the future.

“If you ask me whether I understand or not? I do. It’s just that Thais are far removed [from the issue],” said Sopanut, before giving a short and opaque speech that offered no apology.

“To say we have become more sensitive is not possible because we are not them,” he said. “But we have more empathy.”

John Hurt, Face of ‘1984’ and ‘Elephant Man,’ 77

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Associated Press

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January 28, 2017 12:03 pm

LOS ANGELES — The versatile actor Sir John Hurt, who could move audiences to tears in “The Elephant Man,” terrify them in “Alien,” and spoof that very same scene in “Spaceballs,” has died. He was 77.

Hurt, who battled pancreatic cancer, died Friday in London according to his agent Charles McDonald.

Sir John Hurt poses with his award for 'Outstanding Contribution to Cinema' backstage at the BAFTA Film Awards 2012 in London. Photo: Joel Rya / Associated Press — Sir John Hurt poses with his award for ‘Outstanding Contribution to Cinema’ backstage at the BAFTA Film Awards 2012 in London. Photo: Joel Rya / Associated Press

Twice nominated for an Oscar for playing the tortured John Merrick in David Lynch’s “The Elephant Man” and for his role as the heroin addict Max in “Midnight Express,” Hurt’s career spanned over 50 years. After minor television and film appearances, his breakout came in 1966 as Richard Rich in Fred Zinnemann’s “A Man For All Seasons,” followed by his portrayal of Caligula in the BBC miniseries “I, Claudius” in 1976.

The wiry Hurt brought gravitas to Alan Parker’s 1978 film “Midnight Express,” for which he received a supporting actor Oscar nomination (he lost to Christopher Walken for “The Deer Hunter”) and an uneasy humor to Kane in Ridley Scott’s “Alien,” immortalized by his disturbing death scene, which Mel Brooks later poked fun at with Hurt’s help in “Spaceballs.”

“It was terribly sad today to learn of John Hurt’s passing,” Mel Brooks wrote on Twitter. “He was a truly magnificent talent.”

Hurt is unrecognizable in perhaps his most memorable role as the lead in David Lynch’s “The Elephant Man.” He endured eight hours in the makeup chair daily to transform into John Merrick. The elaborate mask prohibited him from sleeping lying down or even eating while it was on. His would eat his last meal midmorning as the mask was being applied — usually raw eggs mixed in orange juice — and not again until after midnight.

“To be quite honest, the film was misery to make because of the physical problems, so if it’s working I’m jumping for joy,” Hurt said in a 1980 interview. Hurt did score a lead actor Oscar nomination for the role, but lost out to Robert De Niro’s performance in “Raging Bull.”

Hurt was also a prolific voice actor, appearing as Hazel in the animated “Watership Down,” and as Aragorn in Ralph Bakshi’s “The Lord of the Rings.” He also voiced The Horned King in “The Black Cauldron” and provided the narration for “Dogville.”

In the “Harry Potter” films, Hurt played the wand-maker Mr. Ollivander. In recent years, he appeared in notable fare such as “Melancholia,” ”Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,” ”Only Lovers Left Alive” and “Snowpiercer.”

“We’re all just passing time, and occupy our chair very briefly,” Hurt said in a 2015 interview while undergoing treatments for the early stage cancer.

As prolific as ever, Hurt recently appeared alongside his “V for Vendetta” co-star Natalie Portman in the Oscar-nominated film “Jackie” as a priest who consoles and advises the recently widowed first lady.

Hurt leaves behind a few in production credits, including Joe Wright’s “Darkest Hour” which is listed as still filming. Hurt plays Neville Chamberlain in the film about Winston Churchill’s charge against Hitler. Gary Oldman plays Churchill.

“I have lots of favorite memories but I can’t say that I have a favorite film. I have favorite parts which are not in particularly successful films,” Hurt told The Guardian in 2000. “I’ve worked with people from Fred Zinnemann, John Huston, through to Richard Fleischer, all of those boys from Hollywood and so on and Sam Peckinpah and then the Mike Radfords… I’ve been incredibly lucky with the directors I’ve worked with. You don’t realize it at the time, it’s just in retrospect if you look back you think, ‘Jeez, when I saw that CV it nearly frightened the life out of me.’ I thought, “That’s not bad for an old drunk.”

Story: Lindsey Bahr

Thai Official Who Stole Hotel Paintings Freed by Japanese

By

Teeranai Charuvastra, News Chief

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January 28, 2017 11:26 am

Suphat Saguandeekul speaks Nov. 26, 2010, at a convention hall in Bangkok. Image: Thai Home Builders Association

BANGKOK — Japanese authorities on Friday freed a Thai bureaucrat who was arrested for stealing three paintings from a hotel he was staying in Kyoto, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

Suphat Saguandeekul was released from custody after the Thai consulate negotiated a financial settlement with the hotel, which prompted prosecutors to drop the theft charge filed against Suphat, according to ministry spokesman Sek Wannamethee.

Consular officials will now coordinate on an effort to fly Suphat back to Thailand, Sek said at Friday’s news conference.

Read: Thailand Seeks Freedom of Official Jailed in Japan for Theft

Reached for comment, he said Saturday that Suphat used his own money for the settlement and the consulate merely negotiated on his behalf. Sek did not know if he had returned to Thailand as the consulate’s work was done upon Suphat’s release, and what he did next was his business.

Suphat serves as deputy director of Department of Intellectual Property. Officials said he was in Kyoto for a meeting with his Japanese counterparts to talk about patent rights. He later was accused of stealing three paintings from the hallway of the hotel where he was staying, a crime captured on camera, according to Japanese media reports.

The Thai consulate in Osaka reportedly spent several days negotiating with the hotel while Suphat was held in custody.

Thai Commerce Official Arrested in Japan for Stealing Hotel Paintings

Activist Jailed 11 Years For Online Comments Defaming Monarchy

By

Sasiwan Mokkhasen, Staff Reporter

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January 27, 2017 5:54 pm

Burin Intin, in white, at the Technology Crime Suppression Division headquarters on April 29 in Bangkok where he was charged under the Computer Crime Act. Photo: Matichon

BANGKOK — A military court sentenced a man to over 11 years in jail on Friday for royal defamation nine months after he was arrested for protesting other activists’ arrests.

Burin Intin, 28, was sentenced after pleading guilty to insulting the monarchy in two messages posted online, one in a comment to a video and another in a private chat with another person. He was sentenced to 11 years and four months in prison, according to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights.

In addition to his conviction under the law protecting the monarchy from insult, a crime known as lese majeste, Burin was also convicted under Article 14 of the Computer Crime Act, which prohibits putting “false data” on a computer.

Burin has been jailed since April 27. He was taken in by police along with 15 other people while attending a peaceful protest with pro-democracy group Resistant Citizens.

He was handed over to the military and held at an undisclosed location before being brought before a military tribunal two days later to be charged with royal defamation. He was accused of defaming the royal family in a private chat message to Patnaree Chankij, the mother of pro-democracy activist leader Sirawith “Ja New” Seritiwat.

Patnaree was also charged with lese majeste in May for not reprimanding Burin. She will be tried in a military court in March.

Despite the junta’s September announcement it would discontinue military trials of civilians, it refused to apply that to existing cases.

Before today, Burin had been held at Bangkok Remand Prison for nine months as the military court refused to grant him release on bail.

Police Drop Royal Defamation Case Against Activist’s Mother

Activist’s Mother Defamed Monarchy With Her Silence, Police Say

Lese Majeste Filed Against Two Facebookers, Anti-Junta Activist

Army Abductions: Activists Call for More Protests Despite Arrests

So Much Green: Google Declares All Bangkok is Parkland

By

Asaree Thaitrakulpanich, Staff Reporter

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January 27, 2017 5:42 pm

All of Bangkok on Friday became part of the Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary (according to Google Maps). Image: Google

BANGKOK — Users of Google’s popular mapping feature were surprised Friday to find much of Thailand – and all of Bangkok – had become parkland.

After years of campaigns for more green space, it was neither government policy nor parks department action which transformed all of smoggy Bangkok into a park; rather, it appeared an amusing glitch saw the rather aggressive expansion of a protected wildlife sanctuary to absorb much of the nation.

Although a Google representative could not be immediately reached for comment, it seemed the search giant greened up the capital city and most of the central and western regions by redrawing the borders of the Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary.

Called for comment, an official at the Tak province sanctuary said Friday afternoon he could not confirm whether it had gotten bigger – or not.

“I have no idea about this. Did the park get bigger? Can you ask the parks department?” said the man, who asked to be unnamed because he was genuinely unsure about the dimensions of the park.

Read: ‘Fake News’ Prompts Facebook Bangkok Bomb Scare

In Bangkok, those who might want to find actual parks were in for a tough time with everything the same whisper green shade.

With all of the city now a wildlife sanctuary, it’s a good time to head outside with your smartphone camera and snap the white-handed gibbons, macaques and other fauna said to be found in this UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Send us some snaps. After all, if it’s on Google, it must be true.

Where’s Suan Lum? Where’s Suan Benja? Mai luu. :( — Where’s Suan Lum? Where’s Suan Benja? Mai luu. 🙁

This may be fixed by now (unless it’s not.)

Update: At about 11:40am on Saturday, someone at Google (Good morning!) checked the wildlife sanctuary’s territorial aggression.

As Trump Era Begins, Border Wall Divides Republicans

By

Associated Press

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January 27, 2017 5:04 pm

President Donald Trump speaks while hosting a breakfast with business leaders in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in January in Washington. Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA — Congressional Republicans leave their annual policy retreat divided over paying for President Donald Trump’s border wall, one of several thorny issues looming to trip them up as the GOP adjusts to full control of Washington.

Lawmakers welcomed a speech from Trump endorsing their goals on repealing and replacing former President Barack Obama’s health care law and overhauling the loophole-ridden tax code. But the president’s comments on paying for the wall, and subsequent clarification and walk-backs from the White House, sowed widespread confusion Thursday.

After the White House press secretary announced a 20 percent border tax on imports from Mexico, House Republicans felt certain the administration was describing a central plank of their own tax plan – so-called border adjustment that taxes imports instead of exports. They argued it would more than pay for the wall and would end up with Mexico footing the bill in the end, as promised. But Senate Republicans, who are not sold on the House GOP tax plan, began to raise questions.

Then the White House began to walk the idea back, saying it was simply part of a menu of options.

“Many unanswered questions about proposed ‘border adjustment’ tax,” the No. 2 Senate Republican, John Cornyn of Texas, said over Twitter. GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said that “any policy proposal which drives up costs of Corona, tequila or margaritas is a big-time bad idea.”

The confusion underscored the tricky currents ahead as the GOP aims to repeal and begin to replace “Obamacare” by March and complete action on taxes by summer’s end – all while paying for the border wall and other spending proposals, writing an infrastructure bill and taking must-do action to raise the government’s borrowing limit.

“It’s obvious we have an awful lot of work to be done,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. “There’s not necessarily consensus on it, but there is a sense of excitement about it.”

Amid their two-day retreat in Philadelphia, Republicans sought to fall in line behind their new president even if it meant abandoning long-held GOP principles.

House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky announced that Congress would take steps to pay the USD $12 billion to USD $15 billion for the border wall without committing that the money would not be added to the deficit. It was a marked turnaround from the GOP’s traditional opposition to deficit spending.

Lawmakers praised Trump for his use of executive orders for the wall and other issues, something they criticized bitterly when it was coming from Obama.

And even as Trump continued to stoke controversy, Republicans increasingly said they could live with his erratic approach, and some were even coming around to the view that it was helpful.

“I think he’s completely winning the expectations game. I think he’s a genius at lowering expectations and over-performing,” said Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill. “It’s really remarkable.”

During his presentation Trump said he was with the GOP on its aggressive agenda on health care and taxes, welcome words to Republicans. Many were pleased that in his 20-minute remarks Trump stayed mostly on the script shown on his teleprompter and did not veer into the false allegations about massive voter fraud and inaugural crowd size that have raised controversy.

“I think a lot of people in the room feel calm when we see teleprompters in front of him,” said GOP Rep. Dan Donovan of New York. “You have to love the man, though. He speaks his mind.”

Yet it was clear that Trump would have his detractors. Sen. John McCain of Arizona told reporters that he was not sold on paying for the border wall, and the former prisoner of war passionately denounced Trump’s new suggestions that torture works and that enhanced interrogation techniques and black CIA sites should be renewed.

“When he brings up this issue of torture again, I have to speak up. I have to speak up. I have to. I have no choice on that,” McCain said, adding that torture “does not work” and is clearly illegal.

Story: Erica Werner

Comrades in Arts Show Power of Brush and Spray at Bridge

By

Chayanit Itthipongmaetee, Staff Reporter

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January 27, 2017 4:01 pm

BANGKOK — Four Thais, three Koreans, two Japanese and two Taiwanese artists are coming to occupy a Charoen Krung gallery with their works for a month.

Mitr, which means “comrades,” presents 11 established and up-and-coming street, graffiti and mixed media artists from four Southeast Asian countries early next month at a riverside art space.

Veteran graphic artist Thaweesak Srithongdee aka Lolay will lead the crew including psychedelic street artist Hideyuki Katsumata from Japan, Korean black-and-white graffiti artist GR1 and Taiwan’s Mr. Ogay, whose works mostly involve funny but possibly traumatizing cartoons of naked old men.

The exhibition runs Feb. 3 through the end of the month at Bridge Art Space. Admission is free. The opening reception starts at 7pm with appearances by all artists and a party starting about 9pm.

Cafe-shophouse-art space Bridge is located on Soi Charoen Krung 51. Get there by walking from BTS Saphan Taksin’s exit No. 4.

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