Bangkok Swing Swinging in the Rain Bangkok Swing

1 Bangkok Swing is back at it again and hosting another not-to-be-missed event at the Cho Why gallery in Chinatown. Tomorrow, they’re hosting Swinging In The Rain, a fun-filled event starting off with a screening of the 1952 American musical comedy classic Singing In The Rain. Once everyone is hyped up, the crew will then teach basics of swing dancing for half-an-hour, which will move into a full-on freestyle dance afterwards. Topping it off, Bangkok Swing will then move to SoulBar for a funky and soul-filled after party. The movie screening starts at 4.30pm, with a 100 baht entry fee. For more info, email chowhybkk@gmail.com.

2 Even with today’s advanced technology, travellers are still seen carrying the classic Lonely Planet travel guides. Now, foodies can do the same, as Lonely Planet is announcing their new Lonely Planet Food series for 2016, From The Source. In September, the publication will release From The Source: Japan and From The Source: Spain. The former features the country’s best cooks sharing their region’s classic recipes, while the later features amazing recommendations from Madrid to the traditional cuisine of Northeast Spain. Also available are last year’s From The Source Italy and Thailand.

3 From now until Oct 15, The Art Center at Chulalongkorn University is hosting Quiet Encounters, an intriguing photography exhibition by Dow Wasiksiri, which takes a look at the chaos of the scenery and modernity in Thailand’s landscapes. Taking these photos while travelling around the country, Dow’s landscape shots reveal the nature and relationship of Thais and their surroundings. The Art Center is located on the seventh floor of Chulalongkorn University’s Office of Academic Resources Building, open Monday-Friday 9am-7pm, Saturday 9am-4pm. Call 02-218-2965.

4 The ultimate film junkie bible has now been painstakingly updated. 1001: Movies You Must See Before You Die by author Steven Jay Schneider has finally added new must-watch films to the list this year. Revised by experts and critics of each film genre, each entry explains why the film deserves inclusion in the book, its concept development, production, movie trivia and photos of memorabilia. 1001: Movies You Must See Before You Die can be found in Asia Books for 895 baht.

5 dusitD2 khao yai is giving Bangkokians a good excuse to take a few days off from the bustling city with their d2 Debut offers. From now until Oct 31, guests (and their pets!) can stay on weekdays at 2,999+ baht per night, and on weekends 3,999+ baht per night. The offer includes accommodation at their stylish Deluxe Rooms with a mountain view, a 900 baht dining credit that can be used at any in-house restaurant, signature welcome drinks, a complimentary rock climbing pass and much more. Call 02-636-3333 or visit www.dusit.com/dusitd2/khaoyai for bookings and info.

This source first appeared on Bangkok Post Lifestyle.

The British oddball teenagers put their freaky spin on pop with some oddly mixed results.

Let’s Eat Grandma / I, Gemini

While it is offbeat, there is also something wonderfully punky and nihilistic about the name Let’s Eat Grandma, the pairing of two multi-instrumentalist teenage girls hailing from Norwich, England. Long-time buddies Jenny Hollingworth and Rosa Walton have been making what they refer to as “psychedelic sludge-pop” since they were 13. Like the name of their band, the girls’ live performances often lean towards bizarre and provocative, usually involving stage antics and childlike mannerisms — the combined aesthetic that scored them a record deal with indie label Transgressive.

Let’s Eat Grandma’s debut studio LP I, Gemini is a collection of 10 peculiar pop tracks that seems to draw eccentric influences from their predecessors such as Cocteau Twins, CocoRosie and probably The Knife. However, unlike those artists, their self-styled quirkiness is meant as something of a comedic device. (Hollingworth commented in one of the interviews that “the whole album is almost taking the piss out of popular music” and that “so many things in it are just hilarious”).

Opener and lead single Deep Six Textbook is far from hilarious, though. Utterly eerie and atmospheric, the trip-hop-inspired cut contains outlandish lines sung in entrancing vocals such as “Let’s eat grandma in full colour” and “I bought the starfish one day/ Why would we be so stressed?” Frankly, a glockenspiel solo has never sounded so sinister.

Eat Shiitake Mushrooms follows suit with even more dreamlike glockenspiel and a bewildering blend of hip-hop and electronica elements. Underpinned by a blare of saxophone, Sax in the City is exactly what the title suggests. Chocolate Sludge Cake, on the other hand, is evocative of vintage pastoral English folk, featuring a two-and-a-half-minute recorder solo as the girls sing about baking different kinds of cake.

Rapunzel recalls an old nursery rhyme with twinkling piano coupled with a twisted narrative: “My cat is dead, my father hit me/ I ran away, I’m really hungry.” Welcome To The Treehouse Part I and Welcome To The Treehouse Part II couldn’t be more different — the former is a loose, introspective cut whereas the latter is anything but. The album concludes with Uke 6 Textbook, a stripped-down version of Deep Six Textbook with just their voices and ukulele. After all that dense and heady mix of sounds and ideas, the song is indeed a welcome relief.

Hollingworth might have said that many elements of this record are “hilarious” but we’re not so sure if that’s the right word. “Musically confounding” may be a more apt description of what’s going on with I, Gemini. There are moments of promising inventiveness that rebel against the norms of pop music, which is all well and good until that inventiveness is stretched so far it tethers on grating discordance. This is one of those albums you will have a hard time deciding whether to love or hate.

THE PLAYLIST

Brandnew Sunset/ Spaceship

A concept studio album six years in the making, Brandnew Sunset’s Of Space And Time sees the long-serving metal-punk quartet in a state of introspective contemplation as they explore themes of life, spiritual journeys, alternate realities and a dying mother. The latest single Spaceship is a solid heavy metal number built on punchy guitar riffs and tight arrangements. Lyrically, it talks about leaving behind this planet on a spacecraft to find a new one while posing a series of what, when, how and why questions to the creator of the old world — whoever that may be.

Preoccupations/ Degraded

Following their name change from the controversial Viet Cong to Preoccupations earlier this year, the Canadian post-punk quartet return with a self-titled new album. Here, we’re treated to Degraded, a second taste of the band’s forthcoming sophomore release after lead single Anxiety. A mix of snarling guitar riffs, moody synths and thunderous drums, the track finds frontman Matt Flegel announcing the impending doom of mankind in his signature nonchalant baritone: “We’re absolutely obsolete/ Intolerant and overheating/ Leaving our footprints in the concrete/ There’s nothing left here to compete for.”

Boredom/ Geometry

Boredom is a collaboration between James Cook from British synth-pop outfit Delphic and Melodic Records label manager Andy Moss. Here, the duo shares with us Geometry, their debut single that draws together a heady blend of influences from something as wonderfully obscure as “Polish disco” to something as impressively precise as “1980s Japanese re-releases or Paradise Garage mixes”. Oscillating synths, a drum machine and cow bells kick off the musical proceedings, ushering in Cook’s vocals which sit nicely between a state of flippancy and half-hearted enthusiasm.

Roosevelt/ Fever

Since the release of his 2013 EP Elliot, German producer Roosevelt has been working hard to perfect his unique brand of throwback ’80s new wave and electro-pop, the sound that manifests itself in his new singles such as Colours and Moving On. Lifted from his self-titled debut LP, latest offering Fever has all the makings of a nostalgia-inducing pop jam — sun-drenched grooves, wistful synth loops, funky guitar lines and tom drum rolls. “Get back to where we started out/ Far away up in the sky,” he sings. “Bring back the fever again/ Don’t lose the fever again.” Is this the sound of the summer? We’d like to think so.

Glass Animals/ Youth

Oxford-based indie-pop outfit Glass Animals keep things positively offbeat on their latest offering Youth, the second cut taken from their sophomore full-length How To Be A Human Being. Much like lead single Life Itself before it, the track comes packed with eccentric tribal rhythms and summery vibes underpinned by a nagging sense of melancholy. In his hazy-slash-sultry falsetto, vocalist Dave Bayley croons “Fly, feel your mother at your side/ Don’t you know you got my eyes/ I’ll make you fly/ You’ll be happy all the time/ I know you can make it right.” Youth is as weird as it is wistful.

This source first appeared on Bangkok Post Lifestyle.

Thong Muan and her four kittens (Thong Yip, Thong Yod, Foi Thong and Thong Ake) were rescued from the street. They are very friendly.

Khao Neaw is Black’s male puppy whose mother is a shih-tzu. He is very gentle and friendly.

Black is a three-year-old male dog who has short legs. He is very friendly.

Contact details: Anyone interested in adopting one or more of these animals can contact Tharinee Wipuchanin, founder of Pic-A-Pet4Home, on 08-1451-2233 or 08-1551-2628, Facebook: PickAPet4Home-Bangkok, email: pickapet4home@yahoo.com or visit our website: www.picapet4home.com

You can also help by donating old T-shirts, towels, pet carriers, food bowls, newspapers, buckets, cages and medicines or medical supplies.

This source first appeared on Bangkok Post Lifestyle.

OLD FAVOURITE: Hua chai po, left, cooked with shallots in coconut cream. Photos: Suthon Sukphisit

Think of a favourite dish and then consider the various ingredients that come together to make it. You’ll see that they are drawn from many different sources, some of them borrowed from other culinary traditions. One good example is pad Thai. Almost everything that goes into it is Chinese, from the small-gauge rice noodles to the tofu, beansprouts, hua chai po (Chinese turnip), Chinese leeks, dried shrimp, peanuts and even the duck eggs (in the past, ducks in Thailand were raised by Chinese). In terms of its ingredients, this familiar dish is Chinese from top to bottom, although whether it was a Thai or a Chinese cook who first prepared it, I don’t know.

These examples show that the practice of borrowing cooking ingredients from other cultures has been going on for a long time. No one can say when it started, and it is normal in all national and ethnic culinary cultures. The exchange of cooking ingredients and techniques connects different cultures, and will continue to do so, generating new dishes that no one living now will taste for many years.

Culinary borrowing of this kind falls into two basic categories. The first involves taking a foreign dish in its entirety and then adapting it to local tastes, exchanging some of the original ingredients for local ones. Some good examples are kaeng karee kai and kaeng massaman nuea.

Thai cooks take these dishes from their Muslim or Indian places of origin and adapt them to local cooking practices. The chicken or beef is stir-fried with curry spices first, then coconut cream is added and the mixture is simmered until the meat is extremely tender. Finally, additional seasonings are added to create the desired taste. This is the same technique used in cooking the coconut cream-based spicy Thai curries called kaeng phet. (Indian and Muslim cooks don’t simmer the meat and seasoned coconut cream first; they mix all of the ingredients together at once and then simmer them.)

Once these curries had been adopted in Thailand, Chinese cooks began preparing them in their own style. For meat they used beef tendon, beef or pork and fried it with curry spices, adding a little bit of coconut cream, a larger amount of water mixed with flour, and sweet potatoes. They then spiced it very mildly compared with Thai, Muslim, and Indian cooks who preferred more potent seasonings.

Another type of borrowing involved adopting only certain foreign ingredients and combining them with those from the cook’s own tradition to create a new type of dish. There are many Thai dishes that borrow heavily from Chinese food culture but have become so completely absorbed into the Thai repertoire that they are now thought of as completely Thai.

ADAPTED: Chinese-style kaeng karee, below, sold on Yaowarat.

One example is the yam dishes (hot sour salads). These are made from a variety of fresh vegetables, seasoned to create a combination of sourness, saltiness, sweetness and chilli heat. These dishes have been Thai favourites for at least a century. There is a shrimp version called saeng waa, and also yam yai and yam thawaai, both of which use many vegetables. One yam that was once very popular, less so now, is yam nuea yaang, made with grilled beef. Thai cooks now often substitute the Chinese sweet sausage called kunchieng or the mild Vietnamese one called muu yaw.

Yam woon sen, made with vermicelli (glass noodles) is especially popular with women. Thai cooks take the Chinese vermicelli and mix them with shrimp, finely chopped pork, onions, celery and bird’s eye chillies, and then season the salad to create the proper balance of sourness, saltiness and fiery heat from the chillies.

Another dish based on borrowed ingredients is tao jio lon, made by taking the salty fermented soybean sauce called tao jio khao, a Chinese condiment, and simmering it with coconut cream, minced pork, chillies (phrik chee faa), salt or fish sauce, and palm sugar. It is eaten with a variety of fresh vegetables, particularly khamin khao (raw light turmeric), which has no role whatsoever in Chinese cuisine.

The borrowing of ingredients between Thailand and China is not limited to just those adopted by Thai cooks. The Thai curry called kaeng phet plaa chon kap fak (a spicy coconut cream curry made with snakehead fish and pumpkin squash) includes a lot of coconut cream, like others in the kaeng phet category. Chinese cooks prepare it in their own way, with a seasoning mixture that is only slightly hot and uses only a small amount of coconut cream but plenty of rice flour mixed with water, and the squash. This dish is very popular with Thais, even given the existence of the original, more potently seasoned Thai version.

Then there is kaeng phet pet yaang, a grilled duck curry. The original Thai version of the dish was kaeng khua taphaap nam sai ma-uek (a thick curry made from soft-shell turtle, fuzzy, eggplant-like ma-uek, pineapple and tomato-like makhuea prio). Then Thai chefs borrowed grilled duck from the Chinese repertoire, added hotter seasonings, simmered them with coconut cream and added sour fruits. The dish offers the full spectrum of flavours of the original turtle curry.

Another such curry is kaeng awm plaa duke kap mara Jeen (a catfish curry made with Chinese bitter melon). Catfish and mara Jeen have become so closely associated in this curry that they can’t be separated. Anyone who prepares it using a vegetable other than the bitter melon will lose all credibility as a curry cook.

One dish that is so close to disappearing that only cooking grandmothers are likely to know it well is made by taking hua chai po (salted Chinese turnip), cutting it into thin slices and cooking it slowly with coconut cream and shallots. The taste combines saltiness and sweetness.

The list of cooking ingredients and techniques borrowed from China also extends to desserts and sweets. A short list might include hua man thate tom kap khing sai nam taan (sweet potato cooked in sugar syrup with ginger), luuk dueay tom nam taan (figs stewed in syrup), thua khio tom nam taan (mung beans stewed in syrup), tao suan (hulled mung beans cooked in syrup thickened with starch) and khao nio dam (black sticky rice) prepared the same way and popularly known as khao nio piak.

Coconut cream is not popular in Chinese cooking but Chinese cooks top both tao suan and khao nio piak with a mixture of coconut cream cooked with starch and salt. It gives the dish a delectable sweet-salty-nutty taste. If the coconut cream is left out, the dish loses much of its appeal.

Borrowing or exchanging ingredients or techniques across cultural borders does not violate any copyrights or betray any patriotic sensibilities. It shows a respect for the possibilities and achievements of other culinary traditions. Cooking is an art and, as with other arts, it is the interflow of ideas and influences that enriches it.

This source first appeared on Bangkok Post Lifestyle.

Classical virtuoso Irin Prechanvinit is putting her most cherished instrument up for sale to help fund expensive cancer treatment. (Photo by Chumporn Sangvilert)

Young classical guitar virtuoso Irin Prechanvinit is selling a cherished musical instrument she considers her “best buddy” to pay for her mother’s cancer treatment.

Heartstrings: Irin Prechanvinit is selling her ‘best buddy’ Kazuo Sato Prestige 2011 guitar to fund her mother’s treatment.

Irin, who left Bangkok to study at the Royal Conservatoire in the Netherlands six years ago, announced on social media last week her Kazuo Sato Prestige 2011 guitar was up for sale.

“It’s been everything in my life for the past six years,” said the 23-year-old classical guitarist.

In the past two weeks Irin has sold five guitars, but “Sato” is the last and most expensive with a price tag of 500,000 baht. Irin, who says she doesn’t have many friends, doubled the price from her latest guitar sale “for the sake of our bonding”.

Irin played the guitar on her first studio album Forest Paintings, which was released by the UK-based classical music label First Hand Records late last year. “The feedback was good. I have got good reviews,” she said.

Just as she was about to go on a promotional tour last December, Irin abruptly changed her plans and returned to Thailand to be with her mother who was diagnosed with cancer and taken to hospital for treatment.

“The cancer had spread very fast from her lung to spleen, liver, brain and bones,” Irin told the Bangkok Post Sunday.

“We need the money to treat my mother. And we had to sell everything we had.”

When her father put the family home on the market and it did not sell, Irin reasoned she could unload her guitars quickly.

“I was surprised,” she said. “Each was sold immediately after I posted it on social media. Some said they were waiting for me to sell my guitars.”

The first four guitars she sold went for between 40,000 and 80,000 baht each, not enough to cover the cost of the cancer treatment at Bumrungrad Hospital, said Irin.

Alone by Irin Prechanvinit (Video credit: YouTube user Irin Prechanvinit)

The most expensive one she has sold so far is a Karl-Heinz Rommich instrument she originally bought for 190,000 baht.

“The nurse told me she would require 200,000 baht the next day for Keytruda, a cancer medicine, for my mum,” Irin said.

“I looked around and there was nothing much left for sale. I put my Rommich on sale and fetched 150,000 baht, just in time to pay for the Keytruda medicine.”

Irin said she has been surprised by the social media feedback with people expressing sympathy for her mother’s illness and some even making small donations. “I am grateful to everyone,” she said.

Irin, an only child, began playing guitar at the age of 10 and studied at the College of Music at Mahidol University. She has performed at many guitar festivals in Thailand and overseas and is part of a small clique of Thai musicians recognised outside the country.

She was scheduled to attend guitar festivals in the UK and Japan this year and record her second album in June. Irin has already received an offer to continue her master’s studies in the UK after graduation.

But spending months watching her mother bedridden in the ICU unit has made her reassess her priorities. She had planned to become a renowned classical guitarist, but now thinks a career as a musician doesn’t help people much.

“Now I am more interested in music therapy to cure patients,” she said. “I will not give up music. But I want to think we have to live more purposely and I want my music to help people.”

A buyer has already shown interest in her beloved Sato. For Irin there will be no regrets. “I can always find new guitars, but not a new mother. This is the time I have to choose between the two things I love the most, and I choose my mother.”

This source first appeared on Bangkok Post Lifestyle.

BUDDHIST LANDMARK: Phra Pathom Chedi in Nakhon Pathom is the largest pagoda in Thailand. PHOTO: Jiraporn Kuhakan

Greetings from Nakhon Pathom. This week your favourite columnist finds himself in a hotel room for five days in this little town just west of Bangkok. “Little town” is hardly a good description, though it was certainly that way when I first visited here a quarter of a century ago. Bangkok has since extended her tentacles, swallowing up the likes of Samut Prakan, Nonthaburi and Minburi.

Over to the west is a motley crew of smallish provinces that includes Nakhon Pathom, which is also in the process of being devoured. There are two things I associate with Nakhon Pathom. One is the massive historic pagoda smack bang in the middle of town. The other thing is unrest, which is kind of weird, until I checked back on my diaries and found out the reason why.

But before we get into that, the pagoda. As I write this on Wednesday evening, it is the single most dominant and striking aspect of the night sky through one of my two hotel windows.

The other window looks onto an adjacent apartment block, where I can see into every single apartment and, if I weren’t so deadline-challenged, would spend my evening not unlike Jimmy Stewart in the Alfred Hitchcock movie Rear Window, armed with a lot of curiosity and a discreet telescope. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow night.

The pagoda at Nakhon Pathom is not your average Buddhist structure. Nor is it technically a pagoda; it is a stupa. With a rotund base, it resembles a massive upturned burnt-orange bell, shooting 120m into the air, making it the tallest stupa in the world.

Original construction began more than 2,000 years ago, but fires, earthquakes and time took their toll. It has been constantly built upon, the latest incarnation being about 150 years old. It was here that Buddhism first entered the region from India and spread throughout what is now Thailand. The name “Nakhon Pathom” means “first city” for this reason.

It is 235m around the base, which I walked before returning to my double-windowed hotel room and choosing to open the curtains of the temple side. So why do I also associate this giant stupa with unrest? The answer can be found in my diaries.

At this point I have to confess that as a serial writer I have kept a daily diary for the last 30 years of my life. To you this may seem unremarkably admirable or obsessive compulsive depending on the way you look at it, but it does serve a purpose. Whenever I need to check back on events, I can pop back into my past. I know exactly when my beloved three-legged dog Kanokwan died (Dec 6, 2000) or a strange week in 1995 in Koh Samui where my diary entries are nothing but weird drawings of planets and cryptic passages such as NOT MUCH LONGER NOW TILL IT WEARS OFF.

For this reason I know I came to Nakhon Pathom on Friday, May 8, 1992, writing a travel column for the Bangkok Post‘s chief competitor The Nation. I decided to stay the weekend until Sunday lunchtime when I caught a bus back to Bangkok.

No wonder I associate the province with unrest. That was one week before Black May, a series of dark events in modern Thai history which I experienced first-hand.

I had been in Thailand just three years. Only the year before, the military had toppled the Chatichai Choonhavan government on the grounds it was corrupt. Under Gen Suchinda Kraprayoon, the military set up a government and installed the popular Anand Panyarachun as prime minister.

In March, two months before my Nakhon Pathom trip, there were national elections. The winning coalition government appointed Gen Suchinda as prime minister all over again despite his not running in a constituency. An unelected prime minister would lead the country.

That was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

This was at a time when the Thai middle class was starting to get a little savvy. It was still a good two or three years before the internet would arrive, but mobile phones had certainly infiltrated society (albeit in the form of bricks). The general feeling was: Why did we just have elections? What was the point if the politicians go ahead and appoint an outsider to lead the country?

This fuelled a groundswell of dissidence. These were not rabble-rousers or insurgents. The average Thai was incensed. A middle-class uprising was in progress. And all they wanted was for Suchinda to stand down and an elected prime minister to take his place.

I attended one of the first major rallies in Sanam Luang a few nights after I returned to Bangkok from Nakhon Pathom. It was a night I will never forget; 100,000 Thais gathered, riding on the backs of pickup trucks down Ratchadamnoen Avenue into Sanam Luang. I stayed there well into the early morning hours, buoyed by the frenetic energy of the place.

According to my diary, I woke up the next morning with a bad cold, no doubt from rubbing shoulders with the masses the night before. I took the day off work and stayed in bed all day. And it was later that night the military rolled the tanks in and started firing mercilessly at the crowds in and around Sanam Luang.

What followed were three hellish days of shootings and cat-and-mouse chases between unarmed protesters and the well-armed military. Average Thais dodged bullets and some did not, with at least 50 dead from the shootings. It would have been even worse were it not for an intervention by King Bhumibol himself. On the night of May 20, a rally was called at Ramkhamhaeng University and I saw, with my own eyes, trucks of armed men in formation moving towards the university just hours before the protest was due to begin.

At around 9pm, all channels broadcast an amazing scene. His Majesty was seated as he gave a stern lecture to arch enemies Gen Suchinda and protest leader Chamlong Srimuang, who both sat meekly on the floor after having prostrated themselves before the King. Stop acting like selfish people, the King instructed, and put the interests of the country first.

Immediately after, TV stations televised those two arch rivals with stony faces seated at a table reading prepared speeches. Chamlong would call off the protests. And unelected Gen Suchinda would stand down, which he did four days later.

What a time in Thai history!

For me it was a fascinating glimpse into the machinations of Thai politics. So many things happened behind the scenes, both at the Bangkok Post and The Nation, and I watched many of them unfold.

One of my greatest memories was sitting in the newsroom as a more-than-slightly-eccentric Thai reporter approached me in the newsroom and threw down what I thought was a pebble onto my desk.

“Do you know what that is?” he asked, visibly shaken. “A portion of a cranium of a pro-democracy protester shot dead.” Such were the scenes from those out-of-the-ordinary days.

It is now 2016, and I have come full circle.

Here I am back in Nakhon Pathom. The pagoda hasn’t changed, though bathed in better lighting now, and I am still writing a daily diary.

But what a chilling coincidence, isn’t it, that I am here on the day the military government is laying plans for an election in which provisions have been made to allow for an unelected prime minister. I hope … I pray … that there is no circle coming around in that regard. n

This source first appeared on Bangkok Post Lifestyle.

If the number of stalls selling a plant can be an indication of its popularity, then cacti and succulents are clearly back in favour. At Chatuchak midweek plant market there are certainly more vendors selling these miniature beauties than ever before. Many are species and hybrids newly introduced from other countries.

COLOURFUL: Last year’s bromeliad fair. Photos: Normita Thongtham

Not only that but after an absence of many years, if not decades, cacti and succulents are now making a comeback in plant exhibitions and contests. In fact, they occupy a place of honour at the Miracle of Plants Show now being held at The Mall Ngamwongwan in Nonthaburi. Twenty-seven genera of cacti and 13 of succulents are featured at the contest being held as part of the event. By comparison, orchids and bromeliads are represented by only 13 and five genera respectively.

PURPLE PATCH: Some of the orchids visitors are likely to see at The Mall Ngamwongwan’s MCC Hall today.

In all there are 14 plant contests during the 10-day event, which opened at the MCC Hall on Friday. Competitions for the most beautiful adenium, aglaonema, foliage anthurium and orchids were held on Thursday before the venue was opened to the public. Plant enthusiasts will have until 6.30pm today (only until 6pm for orchids) to feast their eyes on the prize winners. The orchids alone are worth the trip to Nonthaburi, with 100 prizes given to different varieties of cattleya, vanda, ascocenda, dendrobium, paphiopedilum, phalaenopsis, oncidium, cymbidium and renanthera as well as native species and foreign hybrids.

At 7pm today the contest venue will be cleared to give way to various forms of ferns, croton and dracaena. Contests for the best of their kind will be held tomorrow, and all the entries and winners will remain on show until 6pm on Tuesday.

Vying for prizes on Wednesday are the entries for the various categories of bromeliads, caladium and sansevieria. Expect to see scores of only the best specimens, which will remain on display until Friday at 6pm.

Bonsai growers will have a chance to vie for prizes and display their works of living art from Friday to Sunday. The Mall’s MCC Hall will be filled with miniature trees in pots and trays, each one more awe-inspiring than the next. This is not surprising, as growers have been grooming their plants for months expressly for the contest.

The vast array of cacti and succulents will face the judges on Saturday, along with variegated plants and crown of thorns. All entries and prize winners will remain on display until 6.30pm next Sunday. Throughout the 10-day event there will be ornamental plants for sale, and the vendors, who grew the plants themselves, will be only too happy to give you tips on how to successfully grow the plants you bought from them.

They will tell you, for example, that cacti and succulents grow best in well-drained soil and 70%, or filtered, sunlight, and that they have to be watered only once a week. The perfect planting medium is loamy soil and leaf mould, preferably from the rain tree (kambhu), mixed with perlite and volcanic soil or coarse sand and small pieces of charcoal. Water the soil thoroughly until it is well soaked, but keep the plants dry. To keep them from rotting due to rain, put them under a clear plastic roof.

Growers are participating in the contests more for fun and to show off their plants than for the monetary rewards, which are paltry. The grand prize winner, however, will get a trophy provided by HRH Princess Soamsawali. For plant lovers and photographers, both amateur and professional, the Miracle of Plants Show is an event not to be missed.

Meanwhile, inspired by the success of the first bromeliad fair last year, the East Coast Flowers and Ornamental Plants Association is organising the 2nd Thailand Bromeliad Fair in October. Last year’s event was only for one day, just to gauge interest in this family of plants. However, this year it is no different. It will be held again only for one day, on Oct 16, so mark the date on your calendar. The venue is the Nine Neighbourhood shopping centre on Rama IX Road in Bangkok’s Suan Luang district.

The association is based in Chon Buri but the fair will be held in Bangkok to make it more accessible to plant lovers and growers in and around the capital and other provinces. Last year’s event saw nursery owners from Nakhon Pathom, Ratchaburi, Chon Buri, Prachin Buri, Rayong and as far away as Chiang Mai showing off their prized plants for the exhibition and contest that highlighted the event.

Bromeliads are native to South America but Thai nurserymen have successfully developed new hybrids. For bromeliad enthusiasts, the fair is the place to find new cultivars to add to their collections. For growers who would like to enter their prized plants for the contest, contact the association’s president, Wiwat Laohapantakij, on 08-1983-7538 for more information.

BACK IN FASHION: More vendors are selling cacti and succulents at Chatuchak plant market than ever before.

This source first appeared on Bangkok Post Lifestyle.

When Comedy Central needed a Thai comedian for an Asian stand-up series, they had to hunt through the archives. And YouTube.

Since the vast majority of Thai comedy comes in ensemble form — Note Udom being the most notable exception — those behind the eight-part special Stand-Up, Asia! had to do some digging. They found Chris Wright, a British-Thai motivational speaker, TV host and teacher known for mixing English lessons with jokes. He is also an emerging stand-up who has played at the Bangkok Comedy Club and is in the process of developing a new two-hour show.

lead-in: Caption PHOTO: SUPPLIED

“They wanted ideally a comedian from every Asian country,” Wright said. “Stand-up’s still a bit of a Western thing.”

The producers got in touch, he told a few jokes and anecdotes from his repertoire, and they said, “Let’s do this.”

Soon enough, he was in Kuala Lumpur with 23 other comedians — many he unashamedly acknowledges are far more professional — filming the eight-part series. Each would get an eight-minute slot at Kuala Lumpur’s LOL @ Live House comedy venue where they had to impress an invited crowd.

The result can be seen on Tuesdays at 7.55pm. The series premiered last week, and Wright’s performance will be featured in October.

Wright had performed stand-up without the lessons before, and he had been on TV before, but this will be his first time on screen purely as a comedian. After whittling his material down, and making some last-minute alterations after a practice run in front of tables and empty chairs, he chose to tell as many jokes as possible in that time.

“I’m pretty satisfied with what I did. I had the crowd laughing.”

With the two-hour show, which he’s calling Chris’s TITs as in This is Thailand, on the way, an appearance on Comedy Central has left him feeling as if “everything’s falling into place on this front”.

“It should be a good springboard.”

This source first appeared on Bangkok Post Lifestyle.

Young actor Film Natgawi is apologising for his conduct after his estranged wife exposed him on social media as an errant dad who assaulted their three-month-old child.

Film Natgawi.

Film, a star of the teen series Nongmai Raiborisud, went before the media with his mother last week to admit he had a secret love child with “Pear”, whom he met while still at school. The couple broke up two months ago after a furtive, three-year relationship.

Their son, Porsche, is now aged two, but until Pear went public about her plight as a neglected single mum two weeks ago, Film’s mother Lilly knew nothing about the child, nor that her son had married Pear.

The production house which hires Film as an actor, Broadcast Thai Television, has suspended him until he accounts for himself. After initially dodging the media, Film finally went before the cameras last week.

In a series of media interviews following up on her social media post, Pear said while Film was initially good to her, his behaviour changed when he entered the industry.

“When he started work, he visited me just once a week. I was pregnant and at home alone. I found out he was seeing someone else when I was close to term,” she said.

The couple met when Film was a sixth former at school. He had broken his leg, and Pear, a tutor at the school who had recently started university, visited him at home for extra lessons. She fell pregnant and Film left home to be with her.

They married at her family’s home when the child was aged about six months, so the child would have a legal father.

His mother, Lilly, said while she had met Pear when she visited Film at home, she thought nothing of it, as he had a girlfriend at the time.

She blames herself for not paying more attention. “I was shocked when I heard the news, but am not angry with Film for staying silent,” she said in tears.

Pear released a handful of social media chats with Film, and a picture of Porsche bearing bruises. While insisting she did not want to harm his career, she said she does not want other women to suffer the way she did. She is taking unspecified legal action against him.

“I couldn’t go anywhere with him, as he was a teen star and didn’t want to be seen with me in public. On the day he hit our child, I went to the 7-Eleven to buy some milk. I was gone too long, because when I returned I saw Film had lost his temper and struck Porsche. Film could not control his emotions when around the child, who cried constantly,” she said.

“When my mother found out he had hit Porsche, she raced over. Film prostrated himself at her feet but she made him leave home for a while to come to terms with what he had done.”

Film had also hit her a few times in youthful anger, though apologised later.

Asked why he did not tell his family about his secret family, Film said he was worried about his mother’s feelings. He denied hitting the child at three months, though says he recalls striking him when he was about a year old, to help discipline him. “I have never seen the picture of Porsche with bruises which she aired in the media,” he said.

While he and Pear have not met since they split up, he sends her 8,000-12,000 baht a month to help with the child’s expenses and pay off her car. She makes a living selling desserts on the internet.

Film said he loves Porsche and would still like to visit, a theme echoed by his mother. “I would love to hold him, as he is my grandson and he looks adorable,” she said.

Sek Loso.

Bee insists she was stung

Rocker Sek Loso says he would rather fight an assault case in court than pay his victim 1.5 million baht compensation as demanded.

Prosecutors last week took Sek before the Criminal Court to hear assault charges stemming from a clash with his ex-wife’s personal assistant in the Ram Intra area in April.

While he was caught on camera doing it, and told the media “she had it coming”, he has decided to fight the case in court. He and his co-defendant, Somchart “Chart” Poonsri, who allegedly helped in the attack, denied the charges.

Earlier, reports emerged the victim, Chanokporn or Chanokchol “Bee” Boonpeng, had demanded 1.5 million baht compensation from Sek. The rocker refused to pay, saying he would rather have his day in court.

Accepting the case, the court sent the matter to its conciliation division and freed Sek on bail of 150,000 baht.

At the time of the attack, Sek’s ex-wife Wiphakorn “Kan” Sukpimai flayed him on social media for assaulting Bee.

Kan said she was horrified Sek assaulted her assistant while in the presence her younger sister, Kae, and the couple’s teen daughter, Kwang. They were going out for a bite to eat when they came across Sek, who was performing a concert in the area.

She also posted an image of him kicking Bee, who was admitted to hospital with a broken left jaw, and took Kae before reporters to recount the attack.

Sek called in the media to say he had no regrets about hitting Bee, a persistent critic of his on social media.

Since the April attack Kan and Sek have reconciled, and Kan has fallen out with Bee, who helped run her fledgling music company, Luster Entertainment.

She said Bee caused trouble with her staff and helped break up her marriage. She had also left her with a 75,000 baht debt after hiring music equipment and refusing to pay the bill.

In a dramatic turnaround on her previous stance, Kan also said Bee lied about the events leading up to the assault in April. “She claimed she did not know Sek would be performing in the area, but I found evidence later which shows she lied,” Kan said, accusing Bee of helping set up the incident.

Asked about the case, Sek said he would like to warn Kan not to trust people so easily.

He said he wasn’t worried about the assault charges, as he appears so often in court these days he’s used to it.

Keeping abreast of fashion

A well-known “pretty” presenter plans to put her new silicone breasts to good use by posing for a daring fashion spread.

Nonthaporn ‘Ying Yae’ Theerawattanasook.

Nonthaporn “Ying Yae” Theerawattanasook has gone under the cosmetic surgeon’s knife a second time to have 440cc silicone implants put in, after the first ones failed to do the trick.

“I have wanted to do it for ages, as the old ones were just a bit too small. I want to be a woman with huge and beautiful boobs. When I wear a top, I want cleavage to appear,” she said.

“You could barely see the old ones, but I was indulging the person who had them done … anything would have been OK. But now I am myself again, I want a breast size which appeals to me.”

In May, Ying Yae broke up with her cosmetic surgeon husband, Nopparat “Mor Song” Rattanawara, owner of the Nopparat Cosmetic Hospital in Bangkok, after three months of married life, citing differences in outlook.

Mor Song is thought to have helped Ying Yae improve her looks with cosmetic surgery.

The well-known pretty has not let the end of her marriage to the surgeon put her off the doctor’s knife. Next, she would like to get liposuction done.

“Playboy has been in touch and would like me to pose for a spread,” she said.

“First, I have to get fit, as I have put on too much weight. I also plan to have liposuction, though I know that can be risky, so I will try working out first.

“I really want to do a sexy modelling shoot. I am 29 and if don’t get it done soon my breasts will lose their vigour.”

This source first appeared on Bangkok Post Lifestyle.

jimmy carr comedian PHOTO: supplied

The best defence is showing you’re not offended, and for Jimmy Carr the easiest way to do that is to laugh. Carr knows a thing or two about offending people — it’s bound to happen when joking about everything from disability and dwarf shortages to car crashes. No subject is off limits for the English comedian and TV host who even called himself Roger Federer’s weird little brother.

But speaking from Inverness in Scotland ahead of the last leg of his Funny Business tour, he does not expect anyone to be upset when he brings his show to Bangkok next month.

“It’s an interesting thing — no one ever gets offended at the show, no one,” Carr said.

“In this day and age, people only come to shows when they know who you are, so you’re always preaching to the choir. It’s always people who go, ‘Oh, I like him, I want to go and see him live’, and then they go and see you live.

“Sometimes when it gets reported, someone takes a joke out of context and puts it in the paper the next day and goes ‘ban this filth’ and then people are offended on behalf of someone else two days later, and you kind of lose the nuance of the joke and the fun of it. I never worry about it, because even though I believe I have freedom of speech and I’m allowed to say whatever I want, people can get offended or they are allowed to not like it or not laugh. I think it’s a bit much when people come and see your show and then say, ‘I didn’t like any of that.’ OK, don’t come again. Don’t come again, can I keep the money? Can I? Good.”

Carr in conversation is much more mild-mannered than his stage persona, although he still speaks at a million miles an hour.

He sounds reflective when talking about a BBC documentary where he spoke to American professor Pete McGraw about the science of laughter. At its heart, Carr said, laughter is a sign you are not offended or that you accept “benign violations” such as jokes or being tickled.

“If you’re a Martian and you land and you see someone being tickled, you would think it seems like a violent act. But actually the laughter is you making it benign. I think often with comedy shows it’s almost like a pressure release, like a valve on the tension if you like, of things that we worry about. So you joke about sex or politics or terrorism and people feel like they are dealing with serious topics, but we’re in this safe space. We can laugh about it.”

Carr thrives on audience interaction and prefers smaller venues “so I can do more shows”. He will play three in Bangkok, with tickets for a final show on Monday, Sept 12, going on sale last week after the first two sold out.

Hosted by the Comedy Club Bangkok, the Westin Grande Sukhumvit will be set up with about 500 seats — intimate enough so that even those at the back will be able to heckle. He invites the crowd to join in and will gleefully match wits with anyone game enough to interrupt.

“I absolutely love that, yeah. If there’s a thousand people in the room, it’s not like I’m the only one with a sense of humour and everyone else is, ‘Oh, my god, thank god the man with jokes came otherwise we’d never laugh again.’ I feel like me hogging all the limelight is a bit much. I want people to join in and have fun with it.

“I’m very lucky with my audience — good hecklers tend to find me.”

Carr has visited Thailand as a tourist but expects it will be different for the four days he’s due to spend here professionally. He’ll be asking questions and finding out what people find funny or are obsessed about.

But don’t expect a wild departure from his 300-jokes-a-show style he has honed over a 16-year career. The further he travels, and Thailand will be his 29th country this year, the more Carr realises people laugh at the same kind of things. Local references to British politics might be out, and there may be references to Trump and Clinton or the Olympics, but expect Carr to keep it broad.

The host of Eight out of 10 Cats and the Big Fat Quiz of the Year, plus a regular on British panel shows including QI and Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Carr enjoys being able to balance TV work with his first love, stand-up.

“TV is like a team sport. You’re on camera, so you kind of get all the credit, but there’s writers and there’s producers and there’s other comedians, there’s people working very hard to make you look good,” he said.

“With stand-up, there’s just you, just you and a microphone. It’s very simple, very pure, and if it’s a bad show you’ve got no one to blame but yourself. TV feels like it’s a group thing, and that’s really fun.”

Carr’s touring schedule is relentless, and he is already performing another show in the UK. But he never tires of telling jokes — or hearing them.

“I mean, it would be slightly disingenuous to say I didn’t find myself funny. When I write I think, ‘That’s good, that will work, funny.’ Like anyone else, I guess, your friends make you laugh more than anyone else in the world, hanging out with your buddies. Comedy-wise, I watch everything. I love the medium, I love stand-up comedy. It’s so simple, it’s just one person with a microphone standing there telling jokes. There’s no special effects, there’s no pretending, it’s just jokes.

“I think I’m addicted to it. I think I’m addicted to drugs and the drug I’m addicted to is the endorphin that’s released when you laugh. You laugh, it releases endorphins, it makes you happy and you want to laugh more. That’s why people come to the show. Subconsciously they’re thinking, ‘I’m going to release some endorphins, great, fun.’ I think just the adrenalin of being on stage, the endorphins of laughing and making other people laugh and how good that feels.”

He won’t be stopping any time soon, and fans in Thailand can expect a return.

“This is very much the end of the Funny Business tour, but I’m fully intending to come back next year. If you tour a place, you want to build an audience. You want people to see you, then you want them to come back with three friends next time. That’s kind of the ideal — you want people to have a great night out and say, ‘Yeah, I want to see more comedy.’ Also, you want it to be good for the local comedy club, you want them to come see a show and go, ‘Oh, I’ll go see the local guys do a show now.’

“I would encourage people who haven’t been out to see a live comedy show to come out and check it out. And then go and see some local comedy in Thailand.”

This source first appeared on Bangkok Post Lifestyle.