• LIFE

  Coldplay across the universe

  Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 07/02/2024

  » The latest Coldplay concert in Bangkok was a feat of photogenic spectacles designed to bedazzle, complete with light-blinking wristbands, sci-fi-warped animation on spherical screens, balloons in the shape of planets and exploding fireworks above the roof of Rajamangala National Stadium ("The football field not often used to play football on," as a Thai national squad member noted.)

• LIFESTYLE

  In search of big ideas

  Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 18/01/2018

  » BangkokEdge Festival, billed as an "idea festival", returns to its old quarters of Bangkok this weekend. Spearheaded by MR Narisa Chakrabongse, the two-day event is a vibrant smorgasbord of literature, music, art, history and politics, anchored in the charming venues of Museum Siam, Chakrabongse Villas and Rajini School. There will be talks -- plenty of panels and discussions, on subjects ranging from "What Makes The Chao Phraya A World Monument?" to "The Power Of Slam Poetry", from "Populism, Religion and Neo-Nationalism In The 21st Century" to "Years Of Living Dangerously: A Woman's Take On War". The list of participants is starry, including writers, journalists, poets, historians and artists, Thai and international. Come evening, the lawn of Museum Siam will play host to film screenings (Pop Aye on Saturday and Citizen Dog on Sunday), as well as concerts by Hugo, Yena, Rasmee Isan Soul and more.

• OPINION

  Armed to the teeth, with no battle to fight

  News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 15/07/2017

  » When everyone else is dead, the arms dealers will sip champagne and cuddle Playboy bunnies. Why? "Because everyone else will be busy killing each other," said Yuri Orlov, the arms dealer in Lord of War as portrayed by Nicolas Cage. When his client orders him a shipment of machine guns used in Rambo, Mr Orlov, an award-winning salesperson, asks, "Rambo part 1, 2 or 3?"

• THAILAND

  Coldplay thrill Bangkok with sound and spectacle

  Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 11/04/2017

  » Thailand, according to Coldplay, is amazing. Coldplay, according to the 60,000 fans packing Rajamangala Stadium, is also pretty amazing -- no, maybe not "the best band in the world" as some gush on Twitter, but a top-quality package of dazzle, flares and fireworks, fan service, visual evocation and robust pop-rock-ballad sounds. If last Friday's gig were a movie, it was a blockbuster. It keyed you in excited and sent you out feeling entertained and satisfied.

• LIFE

  Nepalese film scoops top prize at SGIFF

  Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 06/12/2016

  » A Nepalese drama about political and cultural divides won top prize at the 27th Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF). The 12-day event, part of the Singapore Media Festival that ended on Sunday, also saw two Thai feature films in its Silver Screen Competition, though they came home empty-handed.

• LIFE

  Chuga-Chug! Here come the zombies!

  Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 05/08/2016

  » Zombies overrunning a high-speed train, what more could you ask for.

• LIFE

  Embrace more invasion

  Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 12/05/2017

  » The original 1979 Alien took leads from body-horror B-flicks and spawned many more -- it was inspired by The Thing (1951) and later influenced the 1982 The Thing in which "the thing", whatever it is, explodes from the chest and back of a hapless victim in a gruesome rupture. Now the Ridley Scott's reboot Alien Covenant revisits those sci-fi grotesquerie while also -- perhaps not necessarily -- philosophising what could have just been exploitation fun. More polished, more ponderous and less dirty, the new Alien movie bursts into life most gaudily when the space-beasts pierce through the flesh of their unsuspecting characters and we half-cringe, in an anticipation for more.

• THAILAND

  Life lessons

  Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 13/03/2019

  » Fate clicks its fingers and an already poignant piece in Navin Rawanchaikul's "Revisited <> Departed" becomes the exhibition's most moving. It's a photograph of the artist as he guides his ageing father's fragile hand around a metre stick -- an indispensable tool of trade for any fabric-wallah -- fronted by a group of clay moulds sculpted from the imprints of his father's hand.

• OPINION

  PM's plan to end gridlock is pie in sky

  News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 18/08/2018

  » In three months, the angels will return to the clogged thoroughfares of Lost-Angel-ist. Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, one who's never shy of making the impossible still impossible, has set his sights on, gasp, fixing Bangkok traffic, which is like untangling the Mobius strip or finding the end of Ariadne's thread. The soundbite-ready part of the PM's order is that he wants to see "tangible results in three months", which promptly sent related authorities scurrying in all directions to make it real.

• OPINION

  Beauties and the beasts of coup regime

  News, Kong Rithdee, Published on 28/04/2018

  » It's just too rich to pass up, too weird and symbolic to ignore. The summit of the week between members of the girl group BNK48 and Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha was the moment when politics met pop-culture, when new met old, when cuties met coupmaker, when teens met tank, when beauty met … whatever.

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