Showing 1 - 10 of 114
Getting soft power right
Life, Published on 08/01/2024
» After three months in office, the Srettha Thavisin government has raved on about populist policies in the guise of digital wallets and soft power projects that will create income to boost our declining economy. With optimism, we learned that Paetongtarn Shinawatra, Pheu Thai party leader and head of the National Soft Power Strategy Committee (NSPSC), has drafted a budget of 5.1 billion baht to boost festivals and creative industries. It is welcoming news to hear this government is priortising art, music, literature, design, fashion, film, food, games, sports and festivals as essential sources for the creative economy. Where this enormous chunk of budget will come from, like digital wallets, remains to be seen.
A guide to self-healing
Life, Atiya Achakulwisut, Published on 11/08/2023
» 'Know thyself" -- the most well-known of three maxims said to be inscribed upon the Temple of Apollo in Delphi -- is believed to be the beginning of all wisdom.
Exhibition captures killer shots
Life, Kaona Pongpipat, Published on 19/11/2014
» At around 7pm on May 13, 2010, Maj Gen Khattiya Sawasdipol, or Seh Daeng (Red Commander), was shot in the head while giving an interview to foreign reporters. Photographer Steve Pace was there and took the key picture. His image of the collapsed and bloodied general being carried away, published in several major newspapers worldwide, is what people still remember about this still-unresolved political assassination.
A socio-political landscape of your choosing
Life, Published on 09/09/2021
» Gallery VER reopens with "The Tenebrous Spiral Staircase Of The --", an exhibition that engages viewers in the passage of time to reconnect with their experiences, until Nov 6.
Zamrock shines decades later
Life, John Clewley, Published on 27/04/2021
» Zambian rock and popular music, often dubbed as Zamrock, has featured several times in the column over recent years.
Entrepreneur in overdrive
Asia focus, Erich Parpart, Published on 22/04/2019
» Do you remember what you were doing when you were 13? Aaron Tan, a teenage prodigy in Singapore, was running his first tech startup. He then went on to set up two more companies before turning 21. Today he is the CEO of Singapore-based Carro, an automotive marketplace and services portal that started from his love of trading cars, not driving them.
Every molecule of Marina
Life, Published on 31/10/2018
» Marina Abramovic, sitting in the tearoom of a Bangkok hotel, was talking animatedly about the first time she learned to cook Thai food in the early 1980s.
It seemed like a good idea ...
Life, Published on 23/03/2018
» Considering the considerable financial and critical success enjoyed by the original Pacific Rim in 2013, it was only a matter of time before we received a sequel. Pacific Rim: Uprising, released in theatres this week, brings back several familiar faces, with even more of the cataclysmic robot-versus-kaiju battles than its original. But the boost in spectacle doesn't come without a cost, as the sequel seems to have lost much of the soul that made the original special.
Spooky skyscraper
Life, Melalin Mahavongtrakul, Published on 08/09/2017
» Director Sophon "Jim" Sakdaphisit likes to create his horror films based on locations. His 2008 directorial debut, Coming Soon, is set in a haunted cinema. The follow-up smash hit Laddaland -- his best-known project, which grossed 117 million baht in Thailand -- is set in a housing estate. And The Swimmers (2014) takes place mostly around a swimming pool.
Once lost, now found
Life, Kong Rithdee, Published on 01/02/2017
» The 69th Cannes Film Festival begins today in southern France with its usual fanfare. Regarded as the world's most prestigious event of cinema professionals, the festival celebrates film as art, commerce, glitz and as cultural treasure. Fittingly, this year Cannes has invited only one Thai film to screen in the Cannes Classics programme -- the recently discovered 1954 Santi-Vina, which was once thought to be lost and has now been restored to its celluloid glory.