So what is “New Rave”? Can we say for sure what it means? It’s such an ugly term and it makes no sense. New Rave. Say it out loud. It must have something to do with New Wave, right? Or it’s a progression of underground club culture? Oh, wait, it’s another genre invented by the [...]

I’m beginning to feel like it’s time to move on. I’ve been in Thailand for 19 months and I am unsettled by the same thoughts that were crossing my mind when I decided to leave the UK in 2004. Everything seems to be winding down now and the only thing that is really keeping me [...]

I swallowed a piece of gum a couple of weeks ago while drinking a shooter of tequila at Jazzit. My initial reaction was panic, but I soon realized that I was neither choking nor in any great discomfort. I recalled the great story I was told growing up that if you swallow a piece of [...]

So here we are, back to where we started after the Bangkok bombings of New Year’s Eve. No arrests, no evidence, no charges. So what have we got? Well, there’s the coup that didn’t exactly go as smoothly as everyone thought; there’s the escalating problems in the south, where this morning two couples were gunned [...]

Someone just left me this comment:
you have the writing ability of a fingerless and retarded pre-pubescent mongoloid. please as im sure YOU would write find yourself some NEW cliches.
That’s fantastic. Someone actually took the time to write that. This guy must be a genius because he has written his comment as if he was actually [...]

We could all gain something from the Spanish approach to life over that of the German; having a mid-afternoon siesta is far more appealing than working rigid office hours, but perhaps Thailand is where we should be looking for inspiration. The art of napping is very much alive in the City of Angels, and what [...]

It was the sort of Saturday when nothing important was scheduled to happen. I made a decision to do something I had wanted to do since I first arrived in Bangkok: I was going to ride the Skytrain… all day. Bangkok’s citizens make countless trips on the BTS without ever really paying attention to their [...]

An Australian news report has pinned the Bangkok bombings on regional terror network Jemaah Islamiah. The Weekend Australian is citing Thai intelligence agencies as saying that a central figure from JI was involved with the planning of the New Year’s Eve bombings with the intention of heightening animosity between the old and new regime, thus [...]

Jonathan Head, the BBC’s correspondent in Bangkok, made some interesting points about media censorship in Thailand at the FCC last night. The main thrust of his discussion was that the Thai government under Thaksin did not censor the media any more or any less than the current government under Surayud. The difference between the governments, [...]

They’re still at it: September 19 Network Again Coup D’etat has announced more protests. In their latest press release, the pro-democracy group informs that there will be demonstrations this Friday from 11.30 A.M. to 1 P.M. and from 4.30 P.M. to 7.30 P.M. in front of CP Tower on Silom Road. There will be yet [...]

Rather than being in the grip of terrorism, at the moment it feels like we are in the grip of confusionism. I’m certainly confused. The Council for National Security (CNS) has created a whirlwind of publicity for the deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The CNS is terrified of Thaksin and they have so little faith [...]

I was stuck for things to do today and I feared that if I didn’t leave the house soon I would become lost in a world tragedy and despair. I went to Emporium (a large mall) with Kitty. We spent some time watching a woman making something out of Lego. I was drawn to the [...]

It is Sunday once more and I feel ill-prepared to face the world. I have very little motivation to walk, to sleep, to even eat. At the moment my life is full of dilemmas and junctions, but I think the reality of it is that this has always been the case and only now have [...]

We really are in the midst of a strange situation. Thaksin has now officially quit politics, whatever that means, after his diplomatic passport was revoked and the leaders of the military council banned all local media from reporting about his activities. The threat made to the state media poses the biggest question so far with [...]