Thailand Voice

Only In New York: Photographs From Look Magazine, edited by Donald Albrecht and Thomas Mellins, is the catalogue of an exhibition of images from the Museum of the City of New York archives. It features photos of New York from the 1940s-1950… Read full story >>>

I’m not sure exactly when Newley.com turned into a food blog , but I’m back with another culinary-centric post. I wanted to follow up on La Monita, the new Mexican restaurant here in Bangkok. You’ll recall that I wrote about this place back … Read full story >>>

Both from the lack of announcements in the Royal Gazette as well as from the numbers on the last two DOPA annual reports , the were no new administrative villages (Muban) since 2007 – except the single one just announced shortly ago . As the annual reports… Read full story >>>

“The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose, new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes.” – G.K. Chesterton Read full story >>>

Cinema Now, written by Andrew Bailey and edited (like Art Cinema , and over fifty other Taschen film books) by Paul Duncan, profiles sixty contemporary directors and a selection of their most recent films. Each director is introduced with one paragraph (!) of text, followed by several … Read full story >>>

I never finished Chris Orwig’s Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 video training course . Weeks ago I said I would spend more time to get a fuller understanding of Lightroom’s Develop Module tools. But I never did. I guess there are two types of people in the world – those who can… Read full story >>>

Thai Takes By PHILIP GOLINGAI IS TAKKI Shinegra, a globetrotting man of mystery, Thaksin Shinawatra? The Thai vice Foreign Minister Panich Vikitsreth thinks so. On Wednesday, he alleged that Thaksin’s name on passports issued by Montenegro, Nicaragua and Uganda was “Takki Shinegra”. … Read full story >>>

Author Magdi El Shafei and his publisher, Mohamed El Sahrqawi, have been fined 5,000 pounds by an Egyptian court. They were convicted of writing and distributing an ‘immoral’ text, namely the graphic novel Metro, which was confiscated last year. (Earlier this year, the Egyptian magazine… Read full story >>>

It’s not everyday you get the chance to see 10000 Buddhist Monks all together in Chiang Mai or anywhere else for that matter. The Buddhist Monks gathered to collect alms on a massive scale and this has become an annual event in Chiang Mai. This year, the alms collected were to be… Read full story >>>

Back in 2007 Nok Air began daily flights between Ubon and Bangkok. Unfortunately it only lasted 6 months. Nok Air is affiliated with Thai airways which is one of the two current airlines to service Ubon, the other being Air Asia. It seems that Thai airways… Read full story >>>

Wat Ban Den is an amazingly attractive and unusual Thai Temple. In 1988 the new Abbot of Wat Ban Den set out to create the most beautiful Thai Temple in the area. The Abbot, known as Kruba Tuang, inherited a Temple in poor condition … Read full story >>>

Gary Hull’s book Muhammad: The “Banned” Images includes reproductions of the controversial Jyllands-Posten Mohammed caricatures and a selection of historical Mohammed images including The Remaining Signs Of Past Centuries . Its cover is a rather bland depiction of an actor portraying Mohammed. Hull… Read full story >>>

Chiang Rai is the most Northern Province of Thailand. The selected Chiang Rai Hotels below include many of the best hotels in Chiang Rai and its surrounding area, and make an ideal base for touring in the province. Chiang Rai is situated 200… Read full story >>>

If you’ve spent any amount of time in Thailand you’ve no doubt seen it being played in all manner of places by Thai’s and probably wondered to yourself just what exactly are they playing? well, if you haven’t already guessed they are… Read full story >>>

Have already blogged on Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban’s statement that non-Thais would be protesting at UDD rallies, but Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s personal spokesman Thepthai has suggested the authorities use a shibboleth* as ASTV Manager reports – summary below: Today (November 23) Thepthai confirmed … Read full story >>>

It seems that he is a more intelligent person than people give him credit for. I think he is very skilled at dividing people, dividing his rivals within his army and dividing his opponents. He is also skilled in tactics; … Read full story >>>

Stanley Kubrick’s Napoleon: The Greatest Movie Never Made, edited by Alison Castle, is a collection of ten volumes (Reference, Script, Production, Notes, Correspondence, Chronology, Text, Costumes, Location Scouting, and Picture File) packaged inside a large, hollow book. It’s outrageously expensive and extremely heavy (10kg), and is limited to 1,000 numbered… Read full story >>>

Although the Asia-Pacific region has only 16% of the world’s traffic (road vehicles), it provides 60% of the number of global road deaths. Since the fleets of road vehicles are likely to double in the next few years (especially if the low-cost Tata car concept spreads widely, … Read full story >>>

UPDATE: Anasuya of Channel News Asia also has a report on the bunkers. Have already blogged on the Justice Minister’s trip to Sisaket with the foreign media, but the Straits Times also reported (subscription only): The Thai authorities have built 340 bunkers in two schools … Read full story >>>

Ty writes in a comment and reminds BP of 1976: In 1976, before the October 6 massacre, the rumor went around that Vietnamese sappers had infiltrated Thammasat students. On October 6, the story was that the students who were killed were Vietnamese who couldn’t speak Thai, the unspoken message being that therefore it was all right … Read full story >>>

Matichon has an article quoting Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s personal spokesman, Thepthai, which BP has summarized below: Thepthai displayed a CD with the song, “traitors” and stated that some singer(s) had sung it. He said the song didn’t refer to any particular person, but it was a warning to all Thais. He is arranging for… Read full story >>>

Kong Rithdee in the Bangkok Post on the anti-Thaksin PAD statement in a rally eight days ago which begin with: “We are the people of the Kingdom of Thailand and are citizens who are loyal to our nation, our religion and our monarchy…[list of statements and demands]…Our presence represents Thai citizens … Read full story >>>

The Chronicle of Thailand is a new book edited by Nicholas Grossman and was released last week. The Bangkok Post, which was a partner, has the blurb: Although the most populated and happening place in Thailand, Bangkok is just one … Read full story >>>

Sivarak “Tao” Chotipong, the Thai engineer being detained by Cambodian authorities on espionage charge, is known among his Thai friends in Cambodia as a jovial person with no particular political affiliation. A blogger at Oknation who knows Tao well said he was “shocked” to get a phone call … Read full story >>>

The Thai government Public Relations Department has an article with Prime Minister Office Minister's Satit views on the recent The Times (UK) editorial entitled “Siamese Spat” (as blogged about here). Key excerpt: According to the minister, the editorial views that the lèse majesté law of… Read full story >>>

I just got an SMS message over my AIS phone that said: AIS 3G AirCard 3,290.- รับฟรีเน็ตทั่วไทย 300ชม. ที่AIS Shopกดฟรี*14920 My wife called the *14920 number for information. It said it was 3,290 baht for 300 hours.  Ten hours per day – that’s enough for me. I’d go for that price. It didn’t… Read full story >>>

Two books featuring uncensored depictions of Mohammed have recently been published – Mohammed: The Prophet Of Islam (by HEE Hayes) and Why We Left Islam: Former Muslims Speak Out (by Susan Crimp and Joel Richardson). Both books, published in 2008, feature the same painting… Read full story >>>

Artificial Intelligence – From Stanley Kubrick To Steven Spielberg: The Vision Behind The Film, edited by Jan Harlan and Jane M Struthers, is a portfolio of pre-production material from Spielberg’s film AI: Artificial Intelligence. AI was originally conceived by Kubrick, who worked with Brian Aldiss on a treatment and … Read full story >>>

CSM: “Forensics can help bring justice to this region,” she says during her investigation, under military escort, at a Muslim village in Pattani Province, where three militants were reportedly hiding out in a rubber tapper's rattan hut. “We want to find the [real culprits], so the police and the military won&#… Read full story >>>

Art & Words is a catalogue of recent video works by Thai artist Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook. In Conversation, Death Seminar, and The Class, Araya talks to (and even teaches) a group of cadavers. One of her Conversation videos was shown at … Read full story >>>