Formula of Memories by Megumi Endo Exhibition @ Nospace Gallery RCA

Formula of Memories by Megumi Endo

13-15 May 2011, 7PM-11PM

Opening Party: Friday 13 May 2011, 7PM

Megumi Endo is a Japanese artist based in America. She has exhibitions in several galleries in Portland Oregon and San Francisco California during 2007-2009. 'Formula of Memories' is Megumi Endo's first-time official art exhibition in Bangkok Thailand. It will be show at Nospace Gallery RCA from 13 to 15 May 2011, 7PM-11PM.

More Information about artist 'Megumi Endo'

www.gz-la.com

More Information about the exhibition 'Formula of Memories'

www.nospacebkk.com

Thailand Caught on the Thaksin Rebound (WSJ)

WSJ article about Thai politics, Thaksin, elections:

Mr. Thaksin's re-entry into the political arena since early April has taken two forms. The first is a series of policy proposals such as lowering corporate tax rates, stimulating domestic demand and promoting innovation through greater political freedom. As good as those might seem in theory at least to some people, coming from Mr. Thaksin the ideas are gimmicky, dilettantish and often cynical. His late conversion to the cause of political freedom fools no one, and his thoughts about fiscal policy are rooted in a superficial understanding of Thailand's competitiveness problem.

As is typical of Mr. Thaksin, then, these proposals fail to amount to a coherent program of government or a formula for addressing Thailand's most fundamental problems of social division, inadequate human capital, and diminishing confidence in leading institutions. They serve as a reminder that during Mr. Thaksin's 2001-06 premiership violence in the Muslim south spiraled out of control not least because of his profound lack of interest in the processes of government.

Tony Jaa and Jeeja making new movie Tom Yam Goong 2 together

After Tony Jaa had a falling out with his studio after Ong-Bak 2 and 3 he went to become a monk for a while. Now he is back and at a press conference announced that he will be making a second part to the movie Tom Yam Goong. Even more surprising is that it will be the first movie that he will make together with Jeeja, Thailand's female version of Tony Jaa so to say. Well, let's just say she is also a pretty awesome martial arts film star and probably the biggest female shooting star. Although I have to say after her excellent debut "Chocolate" all other movies have been pretty mediocre. Let's hope this one will be better. Here is an miage of the press conference courtesy of WiseKwai's film journal:

Twitch Film also has this to say:

Missing elephant jokes aside, this is big news for Jaa with the original Tom Yum Goong - released as The Protector in North America - marking both his last true hit and the beginnings of his troubles. It was immediately after Tom Yum Goong that Jaa essentially declared Pinkaew unnecessary and unwanted, announcing that he would direct his next film himself. Pinkaew was deeply insulted and the relationship between the star and the director who built his career degraded to the point where they weren't even on speaking terms. Pinkaew would go on to groom Jija Yanin in Chocolate while Jaa would crumble badly under the pressure of directing Ong Bak 2 himself, eventually losing control of the badly over budget and over schedule project.

But Tom Yum Goong 2 will reunite the entire Tom Yum Goong / Ong Bak team with Jaa in the lead, Pinkaew directing, Rittikrai handling fight choreography and Chocolate star Jija Yanin also handed a significant role - the first time Jaa has ever shared the stage with another marquee fighter. Like the upcoming Chocolate 2, this film will be shot in digital 3D.

So there we have it: Chocolate 2 is actually already in the making so this should also be interesting to see if it can top the first Chocolate. Unfortunately it says production of Chocolate 2 is just starting in May....as the choreographers are the same as for Tom Yam Goong 2, this means the new Tom Yam Goong will still be quite a while ahead of us.

More Hangover Part II Videos

I already posted the first trailer of highly anticipated movie The Hangover Part II here. Now there have been a couple more TV spots (4 overall) released which are posted below:

Din Tai Fung: Famous Taiwanese restaurant opens in Bangkok

Finally! Last time in Taipei I was invited to the most famous Taiwanese restaurant there is, Din Tai Fung. They make xiao long bao, a Taiwanese style kind of dumpling. You also get other dishes at Din Tai Fungus but xiao long bao is what they are famous for.

Now there are branches of Din Tai Fungus all over Asia but I noticed to my surprise not in Bangkok yet. Seemed to be the only country in Asia without one. That's about to change. When eating at Aka today with 2 friends of mine from Taiwan, we noticed a big poster next to it from din Tai Fung announcing the upcoming opening of their first Bangkok restaurant branch. Great news. I will be there when it opens. Its really delicious stuff. Highly recommended.

New Cold Cut ice cream branch open at Central World

First time that I tried Cold Cut ice cream was today. I heard great things about it. Im normally not into the creamy style of ice cream and prefer the fruity Italian style Sorbet ice. I ordered the Apple Pie ice cream medium size. The taste was delicious especially if you like the milk ice cream.

The staff will take the ice cream, then cut it up first on a work board and mix it up with nuts, chocolate,  cookies and lots of other ingredients of your choice.

My advice is go for the small size. Its more than enough.

Chill Chill at Whittard tea

I really love the Whittard tea shop at Siam Paragon. Located right next to a kind of pond on wooden planks it makes you feel like lounging outside next to a lake. The seats are also super comfy and the iced fruit teas are delicious.

Bangkok Skyline from the Columns

The is a picture taken from the huge terrace of the upperfloor suite of The Columns serviced apartment. Its located on Sukhumvit Soi 16 right next to Foodlion.

Singha Selling Rice with Beer

Left: After introduction of the new good rice, what do you plan marketing?
Left Middle: The old formula that is widely used in the showbiz?
Right middle: What is the old formula?
Right: Selling rice altogether with beer.

[Singha Corporation, the largest beer seller of the country, has launched its new investment in the rice market. The newly introduced product is the 'Pun Dee' or good quality rice pack. The cartoon jokes that the marketing for the rice will involve selling the rice and beer together.]

source: Singha Selling Rice with Beer

Pissed off at HTC (at least in Thailand)

Today I went on a journey to Fortune Town in Bangkok to service my HTC Desire HD. All I wanted to do was exchange the volume button, a tiny piece of plastic on the side of the phone.

I had to find out that the spare part costs 117 Baht and the service charge to install it 1300 Baht!!!! Absolutely ridiculous. And also they didn't want o just sell the spare part to me. Because my phone was bought in Taiwan, not Thailand. This is bullshit. I am very disappointed at this.

Other companies, such as Sony, i could go to any Sony shop everywhere in the world and they would be able to  send it in and have it repaired for the same local rates as anybody else. That is good service. HTC still has ways to go, no matter how successful they are at the moment with their smartphones.

The Sony Arc is sweet

I pretty much forgot about Sony as a decent mobile maker but their newest Android lineup is pretty sweet. The Sony Arc is pretty much the most sexy smart phone currently. Its super thin, has this nice Arc curve shape, a great screen, the nice large 4,2 inch screen I love so much and a decent 1500 battery.

That means Im gonna swap my Desire HD for the Arc next month. :)

Greyhound Cafe Central Chitlom

I never really liked the food at Greyhound although their restaurants are always designed very nice. Friend convinced me to try again for lunch at Central Chitlom. I tried "Kao Soi " this time.....and although it qas alright I'm still not really convinced.

Where did this happen?

I woke up with this nice little thing in my leg after last week's Songkran Thai new year party..... I have absolutely no idea where or when this happened. I felt no pain whatsoever except this Morning. How could I miss that???

Paradise Bangkok at Cosmic Bar

Always love the flyers of these parties in Bangkok. The organizers are doing something different so go and support them. Coincidentally, Cosmic Bar, the place where the party is held at, is a very cool little place on RCS Road, so this should be good fun.

Red Bull Augmented Racing app

Smart Marketing by Red Bull: Built your own race track that you can then race on your smartphone. Augmented reality put to good use.

Ed Helms found filming in South East Asia "Brutal"

We are allw aiting for the sequel to "The Hangover" that was filmed completely in Thailand. Ed Helms found filming there "brutal" and "very taxing":

The actor, who visited Thailand to film the sequel of successful comedy, explained that he found the country “beautiful” and “majestic”, but to work there was very different from his previous experiences.


While The Hangover was based around a group of men celebrating a bachelor party in Las Vegas, The Hangover 2 sees them travelling to Thailand for their friend’s wedding.


As in the first part, the men wake up after a drunken night out to find themselves in a post-blackout misadventure.


“Thailand was brutal. It is a beautiful, majestic place to visit. But to work there, it’s just totally disconcerting and incredibly taxing,” Ed told Total Film.


The actor explained that their group’s excessive male energy didn’t fit in particularly well with the Thai culture.


Ed admitted that he and his co-stars Bradley Cooper and Zach Galifianakis went through a mixture of emotions while shooting the movie.


“To be thrust into that with this core group of guys with a lot of very aggressive male energy, it was intense, and, at times, scary. A lot of emotional highs and lows,” he said. “I think we all came back shell-shocked.”


The Hangover 2 will be released worldwide from May 25.

Source: Ed Helms: Thailand was brutal - Musicrooms.net

The end of Source Code explained

I watched Source Code yesterday and the end is not really easy to understand. In fact I think most people do not understand it... So I googled it this Morning and found an explanation by the director himself:

http://m.io9.com/5788795/duncan-jones-unravels-the-mysteries-behind-source-code

Pica Pac: Retro handheld gaming with HTML5

Pica Pac is awesome. Check it out. It is a very stylish attempt to give you all the cool old handheld gaming machines right in your browser. Now I am talking "pre-gameboy era". Classics such as the Game and Watch "Merry Cook" are all there.

Idyllic Pranburi

This image really shows the chilled out ambiance in Pranburi at the beach road. Thats my bike on the right. :) Nothing better than riding a bike at he beach next o the sea.

Chitlom on Songkran

Its still nice and empty out here. Loving Bangkok when its empty.

Songkran Traffic

It would be nice if Sukhumvit Road would always be like this.

CyanogenMod 7 finally out!

Finally the final version of CyanogenMod has been released. It provides a Vanilla Android experience for more than 30 Android devices.

CyanogenMod | Android Community Rom based on Gingerbread

Bungsamran Fishing

There are a couple of places like this one, this one being a very popular choice. You can go and fish for giant cat fish there, then eat your catch. There are some huuuuuuuge fish to catch there. It is an amazing experience.

Here is the link to their website:

http://www.bungsamran.com/

WSJ interviews Thaksin | Asian Correspondent

WSJ interviews Thaksin | Asian Correspondent

I wonder if he will ever be able to return to Thailand. Some say, this would need a red government after the next elections being in power....which I think is inevitable anyways.

A quick guide to Songkran 2011 in Thailand | CNNGo.com

A quick guide to Songkran 2011 in Thailand | CNNGo.com

In case anybody still does not know what Songkran or "Thai New Year" is all about. Although I'm not that excited about it anymore after so many years here in Bangkok, it is still an event that everybody has to see once in their life.

Hobo With A Shotgun

What a movie poster for "Hobo with a Shotgun".

Suriya Movie Poster

I'm seeing forward to this movie by Wisit Sasanatieng. He is one of the most alented directors in Thailand and always amazes with the style in his movies such as "Tears of the Black Tiger". Anyway, Suriya should be interesting.

Cool New Skull Chair at Milan Design Fair

I like:

Little Hanoi Emporium

Tried this Vietnamese restaurant at Emporium 2 times now and its pretty good especially foe the low cost. Its called Little Hanoi and is on the top food floor.

New Lipton Ice

The new Thai 1l Lipton ice tea bottles. I can already see my sugar consumption go up.

Commodore 64 and Tron Legacy DVD Cross Promotional Video

Yeahhhh! The new C64 is finally out. Wonder how many geeks will pre-order it today...

[MV] [Teaser] Bangkok City - Orange Caramel (방콕시티 - 오렌지캬라멜)

K-Pop is still the single most annoying thing I know...but at least there is a "band" now that takes (financial) advantage of the K-Pop hype that sadly enough is still going on here and created a song for "Bangkok City". You can listen to the cruelty in the above video.

Thailand's Got Talent : The most popular performance so far

Not too new anymore but I just had to post this again as it was a good laugh when I watched it first. Pretty smart idea, I think this video was posted more across the world as any other performance from "Thailand's got talent".

The Hangover 2 (Bangkok) Trailer

Here is the trailer of the trailer of the second part of The Hangover. Everybody in Thailand thinks its pretty awesome this part plays in Thailand. They have been filming here for the past months at several locations. During the filming there was even a sad incident when one of the top Australian stunt men died during the filming in a car accident. Anyway, hard to say from the trailer if its gonna be better than the first part but its definitely gonna be crazy.

Mindfulness and Murder

A new Thai movie is arriving this week in Thai cinemas called "Mindfulness and Murder", whic is about an ex-cop-turned-monk trying to solve some misery. The movie also features Way Prinya, one of the members of Thaitanium, the famous Thai Hip Hop group. I am a bit surprised the movie passed the censors without any cuts.

Waiting for the skytrain

Every Morning the same story at Siam. The skytrain always just left when I come...

The C64 Reborn??

Commodore USA's all new C64 shown looking more real than ever - http://pulsene.ws/1bKdy

California WOW is annoying

I really hate California Wow and their misleading sales tactics....such as this "99 Baht per month dance membership and 800 yoga classes"... yeah right.

Dancing shrimp

A Northern specialty in Thailand which is called "Dancing Shrimp". Why? Because its full of very tiny alive shrimp that are put into a chilli/lime mixture which makes them hop around and well "dance".

Great Retro Games site

Found this great little website that lists some of the coolest retro games from old PC and Amiga times such as Z ( Download Z (1996) game by Bitmap Brothers for free )by the Bitmap Brothers. This was just announced to be rereleased on iPhone and Android soon...Definitely will be getting this for my Android if the port will be decent.