Showing 1 - 10 of 15
The politics of taste in our election season
Oped, Kong Rithdee, Published on 26/12/2025
» Hell is other people's tastes. Hell is when we passionately hate what people unconditionally love. Hell is when we can't fathom how anyone on the face of the earth can like someone or something we find revolting -- a food, a film, a style, an opening ceremony, a politician, a president.
Andalusian dreams
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 15/02/2024
» Two Middle Eastern tourists looked excited as they held up a phone to an exquisitely carved arabesque in Nasrid Palace at the Alhambra. No, they're not taking photos. They're comparing the Arabic text on their screen with the 8th century stone calligraphy. I hear them mumble in Arabic -- here's the translation:
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.)
The true nature of the beast?
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 20/11/2020
» 'Happy families are all alike," said Tolstoy, "every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
Who is our Oscars Favourite?
B Magazine, Kong Rithdee, Published on 24/02/2019
» The most important of all unimportant things, the Oscars arrive on Monday morning, Thailand time. In a year that seems more muted than usual, Hollywood's biggest jamboree has striven to stay relevant with the inclusion of blockbuster titles such as Black Panther and Bohemian Rhapsody, besides the more edgy and less popular films that have claimed much of the headlines, such as Roma and Green Book. While there are many cinematic awards around the world, the Oscars still seem to matter the most, and the ritual of predicting the winners is at once a frivolous parlour game and an annual survey of the vital signs of mainstream cinema. Don't bet on it, but we offer our takes here.
Mariah carries on
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 13/11/2018
» Mariah Carey came to town as the final stop on her Asian tour, playing the near-capacity crowd at a hall in Bitec Bangna after the supposedly more dramatic setting of Borobudur. "Mariah Carey Live In Concert" last Friday lasted barely 90 minutes, with a set heavy with her 90s R&B hits and a couple of new songs from her latest album, Caution, which comes out this week. No Christmas songs on the set list, though I'm sure quite a few of us sort of half-hoped there would be.
In the dark places
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 09/11/2018
» It rains incessantly in Zhang Yimou's Shadow, a monochromatic palace-intrigue-and-martial-arts high rhapsody set in a perpetual monsoon. Everything is grey, brown, black and white, a solemn palette befitting a solemn story interspersed with a blur of sword-fighting where warriors wield blades and umbrellas as if they were painting calligraphy.
Bismillah, Freddie will not let us go
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 02/11/2018
» Freddie Mercury, played with an earnest commitment bordering on fetishism by Rami Malek in the biographical film Bohemian Rhapsody, is a rock star the likes of which we hadn't seen before the 1970s and haven't since: An Asian frontman of a British rock outfit, a four-octave opera lover who sang in leotards and thongs, a proud organiser of orgiastic jamborees, and a gay man who endeared himself to the hard-rock audience that, in all likelihood in those pre-diversity days, either failed to realise that their mustachioed rock-god was out-and-out queer or suppressed their suspicion so completely that they didn't feel any cognitive dissonance in their devotion to Queen. Even the name Freddie gave the band laid it all bare.
All that glitters
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 17/08/2018
» The director as a priest, the camera a confessional box, and the idols worthy of worship become teary girls choked by emotion.
Celine Dion floats Bangkok's boat
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 25/07/2018
» That "sinking boat" song -- that's how Celine "My Heart Will Go On" Dion, joking with the casual humour of a seasoned Las Vegas residency entertainer, refers to her most played, most loved, most karaoke-d, and perhaps most clichéd number. How many times have you heard it? Hundreds, if not more, intentionally or accidentally. And yet, apparently, there's nothing compared to hearing it live, 21 years after that big boat sank in Titanic, belted out at top octave and lung power by Dion herself, as she did to the roaring crowd at Impact Arena on Monday night in her first-ever concert in Bangkok.