The French daddy returns

In the chapter called ‘bird’, Monsieur Mitterrand begins the first sentence with the words ‘the boy’.

The French daddy had earlier dropped by at a club somewhere. He had seen this young man among other pretty ‘boys’ on the premises and ended up following him to some place, about which I will not go into detail. The first paragraph finishes with a description of how strong his desire for this rent boy is.

I received the book yesterday. So far, I cannot judge if ‘The Bad Life’, the memoirs of  Monsieur Mitterrand is a jolly good read or not, seeing as I have not read the book from the beginning. I skipped to the chapter that scandalised the man. He was quite frank about what he did and he seemed pretty happy in his description of his sexual experiences, though his style of writing is somewhat novelistic. He may even have embellished some sentences for effect. Having read a few pages of this chapter he gave me the impression of being someone who suffered from “sexual constipation”, that is having an unbearable and powerful sexual desire, but being unable to release that strong sexual tension. I will not say whether I agree or disagree with his shenanigans. The man is not much different from many other randy old men who like to engage sexually with those who are younger than them. The difference is that this French daddy is a politician and has documented his adventures in a book. What he wrote in his memoirs did not come to me as a surprise. I have heard it all before.

Simply no comment

My teacher liked Suede and so did I

One of the Thai teachers who taught me at college often loved to engage in conversation with me about Britpop. He was aware of the fact that I had been listening to and reading about British bands such as Blur, Pulp, Ash and so on. It did not come as a surprise when he asked me if I had been listening to Suede as well. This teacher of mine liked the band a lot. He was a Suede aficionado. He even had a Brett Anderson haircut. When my friends and I wanted to slag him off we would often refer to him as our Brett. Once, if I remember correctly it was a ‘Saturday Night’, we saw him and his alleged boyfriend, who was also teaching us at the college, dancing together in a nightclub to one of Suede’s songs: ‘Trash’. Our Brett did not realise that we were there. Camp as he was at that time, he demonstrated his moves effeminately. We could not help laughing when we saw him doing a jig. He looked ridiculous but in an amusing way.  Some people just cannot help being dedicated to the thing they most like and so was the case with my teacher.

I also liked some of Suede’s songs. I would repeatedly listen to ‘Trash’, Beautiful Ones’, ‘She’s in Fashion’ and ‘Everything will flow’. Listening to these songs brings back some of my gleeful memories. They revitalise my youth and I feel ever ‘So Young’.

Sometimes it is alright to feel like trash

Must read from Sight and Sound

“Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Tropical Malady, for instance, is mysterious in a completely different way. Offering, among many other treats, a sincere belief in shamanism, this portrait of a romance stands here for a more delicate form of experimentation than Tarr’s or Haneke’s – and also for those film-makers who have found crossover opportunities in gallery-based work, another phenomenon which gained ground in the last decade. Weerasethakul (or ‘Joe’, as his friends and colleagues call him) has benefited, too, from the kind of world cinema curation that exemplifies the new influence of festival funds, and of special projects like Vienna’s very successful New Crowned Hope commissions.”

Source: Syndromes of a new century

“The gay love-story which is the kernel of the first section asks for no special treatment… But it is Weerasethakul’s intention to go directly and strongly to the world of Joseph Beuys and William Blake, and by the time we get to the second section he is determined to evoke a place that is defiantly other-worldly. The darkness of this jungle is infinite, and Weerasethakul is careful to leave it dark… Weerasethakul’s passion for the forest floor is also considerable: few have ever attended to its structure in such detail, with its paw-prints, twigs, dead leaves, snail shells, fly-blown turds, leeches and most of all mud. It is only by smearing himself with mud, like Arnie in Predator, that the soldier stands any chance of outwitting his tiger-spirit nemesis…

“This is a work of outstanding originality and power that comes nearer to the condition of the quest and the dream-state than any film in recent years. It requires a relaxed and open mind to watch it, be consumed by it, and enjoy its great and fearful symmetry.” (Roger Clarke, S&S March 2005)

Source: Sight & Sound’s films of the decade

As I am Thai, I mentioned only Khun Apichatpong and his work. There are a decent number of other movies and foreign filmakers in these articles that should not be missed. I strongly recommend reading the rest of the stories via the links.

New arrivals

I got an email from the website that I usually purchase my clothes from. The seller has been trying to tempt me to buy a few items from the site for quite some time. So far, I have managed to ignore this incessant persuasion. Having said that, after receiving the latest email, I must admit that I could give in to this cajoling easily. I like these denims. They look very fetching and sexy. I have bought Rufskin denims before and they fit my lower parts perfectly. The jeans help to enhance your manliness. I think you know what I mean.

Don’t they look nice? I must not yield to this temptation. But they are so inviting. I mean the garments. Sigh…

It is axiomatic that to blog in Thai is a bitch

I think I deserve to be nominated as the most indolent Thai blogger. For the past few weeks, I have been trying to write about many things, but ultimately have decided to delete them all. I had a number of ideas and then when I began to put them into words, I started to feel that I could not be bothered. Blogging should not be a chore right? But in my case, from time to time, it certainly is.  I am thinking that I should write a blog in Thai instead.

Many people are not going to believe what I am going to say: the reason that I have chosen to blog in English is that I find it more difficult to type in my native language. It usually takes me many more seconds to finish a sentence in Thai. I cannot help having become so used to English alphabet keyboards. I first learned to type on a Thai alphabet typewriter at school many moons ago.  But what I learned cannot be applied when it comes down to typing on a computer keyboard. English keyboards are ubiquitous and I find it is relatively easy to manoeuvre my fingers over the keys. It does not take me long to finish a couple of sentences, let alone a paragraph. That is the reason I เลือกที่จะพิมพ์เป็นภาษาอังกฤษ

My white village

It has been snowing heavily in many parts of this country. Although, the scenery is picturesque, the weather is frigid. I cannot wait to go back to Thailand in summer for a holiday and lie naked on the beach under the scorching sun, albeit I might get burned!

Can You Tell The Difference Between a Thai Lady and a Thai Ladyboy?

You scored 10 out of 10 correctly (100%).
Congratulations! You’re a champion ladyboy spotter.

Source: Bangkok Diaries

I must admit that despite having scored 10 out of 10, I was not entirely sure about two ladies. Thankfully, I managed to guess correctly. Why don’t you have a go and see how many you can get right? It might even come in handy if you have a special interest in Thai ladies and the others.

The Paris Review Interviews Vol. 4

As it states at the back cover of the book “if you want to get acquainted with your favourite writer, you could go to a reading or a book-signing. But to really know them, you should read a Paris Review Interview.” In this latest volume, the book features a decent number of prominent writers such as the great American author Philip Roth, two Nobel Laureates: V.S. Naipaul and Orhan Pamuk, the inventive and unpredictable novelist Paul Auster and of course my dear Haruki Murakami and so on. As a Murakami aficionado, I went straight for his interview.

As a fan of his work, I found the interview quite informative. But many of the things he discusses with the interviewer do not come as a surprise. He is well known as a loner who likes to keep his distance and a reluctant talker who does not seem to take himself very seriously. An elusive novelist who often writes offbeat books, but on the other hand, prefers to translate American realists. An avid reader of his books will realise that he would rather leave everything wide open than judge or provide conclusions. Quite often, the protagonists in his novels are always missing something and they keep searching for it. Sometimes disappointment arises, but the experience itself is paramount. That seems to be the theme of his books.