The Bone Is Never Gone

His friends call him T-Bone and you’d call him Captain America if you new half of what he’s done in his rich and colourful life up until now. He’s a rock poet is what he truly is, and if he could play guitar half as good as he can write, he’d be up there with SRV and Jimi What’s-his-name.  The guys dig him and the girls adore him, ’cause he gives up his Mississipi vibe through his big smile and generous nature. Tells it like it is and don’t take no shit – unless you’re a Thai general or a Californian highway patrol officer – and even if trouble do call, he gets around it, over it, under it and up and away. That’s his style. That’s T-Bone style. He’s leavin’ town but we know he’ll be back – Bangkok is a little part of his life – but a chunk of his heart.

The Darker Road

Thailand’s prime minister pauses briefly and swallows hard as he addresses the question few of his compatriots dare contemplate: life without King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world’s longest-reigning monarch.

“I am under no illusion — it will be a very difficult time for all of us,” says Abhisit Vejjajiva, who in December patched together a multiparty coalition government and became troubled Thailand’s fifth prime minister in four years.

American-born King Bhumibol, 81, whom many Thais regard as semi-divine, ascended the lotus throne in 1946, when Harry Truman was in the White House and Josef Stalin ruled the former Soviet Union. He has been the lone stabilizing presence in a land that has been rocked by 15 successful or attempted coups d’etat, 16 different constitutions and 27 changes of prime minister during his reign. The stern-faced monarch with few official powers but much influence has at least twice intervened to halt bloodletting.

Thailand’s need for stability has grown more acute with the emergence of a seemingly unbridgeable, color-coded societal chasm between wealthier city dwellers and those that live in the countryside — warring factions that use symbolic hues to literally wear their allegiances on their sleeves.

On one side: the urban elite, based largely in Bangkok, who have adopted the king’s traditional color of yellow. On the other: the majority rural poor, who pledge equal loyalty to the king yet sport red shirts to show their support for billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra, the populist prime minister overthrown in a 2006 coup.

Advertising Failing On The Net?

While newspapers may be folding, all is not so cut and dried on the Net when it comes to filling the advertising void. Check out what one net guru thinks.

The anarchy of our television reportage

Inside THAI Society

By: BOONRAK BOONYAKETMALA

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejajiva’s critique of the “danger” of mixing fact and opinion together in the form of “news” by the so-called “television news chatterers” is evidently being completely ignored, not only by the numerous practitioners but also by professional associations theoretically enforcing ethical standards upon such people, and the consumers themselves.

Music Sucks?

It’s really a little bit pathetic how Bob Lefsetz keeps writing about music and the music industry in his own time as if it were his own time. Bob and the gang were ‘current’ for about five years 25 years ago. I mean how dated did Buddy Holly become almost immediately when Led Zeppelin II came out?

Digital Overload Is Frying Our Brains

By Brandon Keim

Paying attention isn’t a simple act of self-discipline, it’s a cognitive ability with deep neurobiological roots — and these says Maggie Jackson, are in danger of dying. In Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age, Jackson explores the effects of “our high-speed, overloaded, split-focus and even cybercentric society” on attention. It’s not a pretty picture: a never-ending stream of phone calls, e-mails, instant messages, text messages and tweets is part of an institutionalized culture of interruption, and makes it hard to concentrate and think creatively.

Tongs Ya Bass

Recite this latest ‘poem’ of mine in your thickest Glasgow accent…

Tongs Ya Bass

 

by Alex Pithie 

 

I wis walkin up the high street

Gan hame fae the broo

Fin I saw a little Chinkie

Wi’ a yin yang tattoo

 

I crossed o’er the pavement

Blocking his way

He says ye better watch yer step

I’m wi’ the 14K

 

Oh says I

So yer a bit of a lad?

Worse than that he says

Am a fuckin’ triad

 

A triad says I

Should ye no hiv three heeds?

He says watch yer muth pal

Or you’ll end up deed

 

Heavy duty says I

Listen tae you

Ye get a whole lot of balls

Fae yer yin yang tattoo

 

It’s bonny an’ that

They’ve did a good job

Bit the yin and the yang

Hiv fucked up yer gob

 

Ye might think yer hard

I think that yer wrong

And I should know

Am a Glesga Tong

 

 

Out Of It In Bangkok – A Street Away

 So just where is Khao San Road, an alleged hippy haven of cheap rooms, traders of dreams, night- and daymarkets and wall-to-wall marijuana?

 

 

by ALEX PITHIE

 

 

I

 first came to Bangkok 25 years ago and they told me then that ‘it’s a must-see’. It was…kinda. Heaving I guessed with visa fugitives, pimps, hustlers, on-the-run scam artists, losers, dope peddlers, Congolese drug mules, randy college kids finding themselves with or without a condom, off-duty cops, on-duty cops, Euro trash playing pool, thieves marking time, misplaced soccer dickheads saving up for more lager, and tanned Jews forcing prices down and the goyem out.

The Future Of Content Online…

The decline of newspaper popularity has been attributed to the rise of the internet and the proliferation of web-based content. With an extremely low barrier of entry and variable cost, the web allows anyone with a computer to become an independent publisher: As a result, the amount and variety of content online far exceeds print publications in most fields.

So how can newspapers survive and do well as a business in the future?

Trends To Help Define The Future

The best way to think about new media, I have learned, is to look at the recent past and at the trends that are here now and seemingly have staying power. Apple CEO Steve Jobs once famously said “you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.” He’s right. With that in mind, there are three trends that are likely to shape things over the next four years.