Showing 1 - 10 of 10
Corona and the death of cinema (again)
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 30/03/2020
» "Cinema is an invention without a future," said Louis Lumiere who, along with his brother Auguste, invented the Cinematographe in 1895. From its birth, cinema was convinced of its own death. From the very beginning, cinema predicted its own eventual demise. And that was before the two world wars, the advent of home video, laser disc, DVDs, Blu-rays, terrorism, mass shootings, Netflix, and now the coronavirus, the latest scourge that has sealed shut cinema houses around the world.
A shared history
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 28/07/2017
» At a military airport in Dijon earlier this month, the sky was bright blue, streaked with thin patches of clouds above the picturesque French countryside. Zooming ahead was a squadron of seven L-39C Albatross aircraft, slim and daredevil. The jets spewed trails of smoke as they flipped and flopped in acrobatic manoeuvres in ever-shifting formations, the sonic echoes shaking the ground as their trajectories inspired awe. Precise, exhilarating, powerful.
A design for life
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 10/03/2017
» At the International Furniture Fair Singapore taking place now until Sunday, a Thai designer is one of the 10 international talents featured under the Design Stars Showcase. Sarngsan Na Soontorn graduated from Chiang Mai University in 2003, went to École Nationale Supérieure de Création Industrielle in Paris, and has since spent his career in Paris and Chiang Mai, working in several designers' studios where he combines the influences of both worlds into products.
Relive cinema history at Maya City
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 28/12/2016
» Dec 28 is the day cinema was born. On this day in 1895, the Lumiere Brothers for the first time showed their invention, the cinematograph, for paying customers at Salon Indien du Grand Cafe in Paris. The programme consisted of 10 short films; the first being Workers Leaving The Lumiere Factory, a short clip showing female workers filing out of a building in Lyon.
The late, late show
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 13/06/2016
» Normally prime time for television is 8-11pm or thereabouts, the period when the family gathers to watch news and series while having dinner. So it will come as a surprise to many that for Muslim audiences during this month of Ramadan, prime time for television is closer to a graveyard shift -- 3-4.30am, deep in the night while most people are asleep -- as families wake up for the pre-dawn meal before a full day of fasting.
Poster boy
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 19/02/2016
» At his home in Pak Chong, Piak Poster sits on a stool before a half-finished painting, the raised platform encircled by stacks of tools, drawers, paintbrushes and all imaginable colours. “I call this ‘my throne’,” he says with a laugh. “This is where I work, and I still work every day.”
Courting controversy
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 13/01/2016
» When creativity crosses the line into insensitivity, there's usually a pattern of uproar, apology and cancellation. In the past many years, there's been a number of notorious cases of insensitive creativity in Thai commercials, series, films and visual representations that have made international headlines. The offensive issues often involve race, skin colour, ethnicity and historical interpretation. There are many more that never made the front page, for example the casual mockery of minorities and genders that is normalised by the audience, such as jokes on the accents of hilltribe people that often appear in movies and TV series.
Comic royalty
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 22/04/2015
» Kochakorn Mhanaojyakorn goes by the catchier moniker of "Pop Mhan". The Thai-born, US-based artist is certainly a pop-cultural influence thanks to his prolific output and long resume. His clients include DC Comics, Marvel Comics and Lucasfilm, as well as companies such as Hasbro, Lego and Microsoft. Some of Pop Mhan's key works include the cover of Amazing Spider-Man #1 Vol. 3 and a comic series Jedi Quest, an offshoot of Star Wars. Now he's doing He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe for DC.
Peter chan_ balancing on the cutting edge
B Magazine, Kong Rithdee, Published on 06/01/2013
» Facing a forest of reporters' microphones, Peter Ho Sun Chan speaks Thai with the slight accent of someone who remembers the tongue, but not the spontaneity.
The Lottery labyrinth
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 22/10/2012
» For 230 years Thai people have gambled on the lottery _ legit and underground, paper-based and imagination-prone. Along with every discussion of the lottery comes a whole syllabus of tangled subjects: economic value, political manipulation, tax structure, legal philosophy, morality, superstition, national character, the distribution of wealth and luck.