Showing 11 - 20 of 20
Let's get ready to bike for mum
Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 11/08/2015
» It all started with a short, reluctant, just-off-the-soi bike trip to buy some eggs for my mum, last month. It was the smile with which she received me at our doorstep as I cycled up to 12mph, some 250m down the soi without cracking a single egg that gave me the idea that I, albeit among the most under-exercised of Bangkokians, might be up for the Bike for Mom event on Sunday.
Bangkok's long wait to appreciate the arts
Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 18/06/2015
» Last week, I had a chance to visit a few museums in Paris. On the first Sunday of every month, admission to most museums in the city — The Louvre, Musée d'Orsay, Centre Pompidou, Musée Picasso, etc — is free. What struck me most was not Monet's water lily paintings rooms in Musée de l'Orangerie, Matisse's paper cut-outs room at Centre Pompidou, nor Mona Lisa's smile in that suffocatingly-touristy room in the Louvre. It was the long lines of crowds gathered in front of these places, from early in the morning, as if they were at pilgrimage sites or department stores offering 50% discounts.
Sooner or later, it's game over
Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 20/02/2015
» Last week I was invited to join a panel on the topic "Why Criticism?", at Speedy Grandma, a small gallery in Charoen Krung. Along with a university literature lecturer and a film critic, I was invited as an arts and theatre critic. Before agreeing to participate, I insisted to the organisers that I'm not a critic, and it's unlikely that I will consider myself one anytime soon.
Eccentric relief from bitter reality
Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 04/11/2014
» Like any good fantasy book and film, or post-evening news soap opera, theatre is another means of escape from depressing reality. And our present reality is indeed depressing. How many months have we now been under our dear leader's monopolised rule? Sure, what has happened in these past couple of months has given a generous amount of material to journalists. But what's the point of writing about the junta again? It will only become my fifth Thinkbox that yet again fails to reach his revered eyes and ears.
A love supreme
Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 28/08/2014
» Dear Army Chief/Junta Leader/Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, I love you. I’m not sure why, how or when. I just know for a fact that I do.
A happy ending?
Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 24/07/2014
» I saw this at Siam BTS station. It was around noon, though it doesn’t really matter what time it was (and perhaps the present tense is more apt for narration).
Tongue-tied about Thai politics
Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 21/05/2014
» Now is definitely not the best time for us Thais to be travelling abroad, especially if we have to engage in conversations with foreigners about the political situation here. Last weekend, I was on a media trip with a group of reporters from Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines and we had to meet up with quite a few people from Europe.
Splitting seems not all that shocking
Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 22/04/2014
» When a banner bearing the message “This country has no justice. I want to split the country” was set up earlier this year across a pedestrian flyover in Phayao province in the North, I was shocked.
The means justify the end
Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 10/12/2013
» Allow me to venture a thought we might have overlooked during the weeks-long fight between Suthep-led anti-Thaksin protests and Yingluck Shinawatra's government _ Thais are fighting over something that may become beautiful.
Revolutionary or radical?
Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 02/10/2013
» Labelling the Thai education system "dictatorial" and campaigning for the abolition of the strict rules regarding students' uniforms and hairstyles, 16-year-old Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal has suffered a barrage of curses and insults from social media users. Many have expressed a wish for the boy to go and live in another country. Netiwit also wants the singing of the national anthem and prayers in the morning at school cancelled _ all the more reason for nationalist Facebook warriors to despise him.