Music

Lady Gaga Arrives in Bangkok

May 24, 2012

2012 05 24 lady gaga bkk

Take note: One of the world’s biggest pop stars has arrived in the Thai capital.

Above is a snapshot of today’s Bangkok Post front page.

The Post reports:

Lady Gaga arrived at Don Mueang airport in her private jet late Wednesday, and was greeted by a large crowd of fans before her Friday evening concert in Bangkok.

She immediately tweeted:

“I just landed in Bangkok, baby! Ready for 50,000 screaming Thai monsters. I wanna get lost in a lady market and buy fake Rolex.”

There’s also a video clip of her arrival, embedded above and on YouTube here.

Regarding the singer’s choice of attire, @Binderdonedat riffed thusly:

(Style mavens and hard core Gaga fans can see more photos of her outfit here.)

(All emphasis mine.)

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Off topic: Lady Gaga is Coming to Bangkok in May

March 15, 2012

2012 03 15 lady gaga bangkok

As a conscientious chronicler of all things Bangkok-related, I would be remiss in my duties were I not to point this out.

The upcoming show, part of the “Born This Way” tour, will take place on Fri., May 25 at Rajamangala Stadium.

Tickets go on sale via ThaiTicketMajor — where you can find additional details — on March 17. (That’s Saturday.)

(Via CoconutsBangkok.)

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Thailand-related holiday gift suggestion: The Sound of Siam

December 20, 2010

2010-12-20_sound_of_siam.jpg

Here’s a gift suggestion for Thailand enthusiasts — or lovers of eclectic music — on your holiday shopping list: The Sound of Siam: Leftfield Luk Thung, Jazz and Molam from Thailand 1964 -1975.

From the record company’s Web site:

As Soundway’s entry point into the Asian music world, The Sound of Siam CD and double LP offers a unique vantage point to the most experimental period in Thai musical history. The 19 tracks reflect the outcome of a twentieth century journey from Thai classical to Luk Krung and Luk Thung – music that incorporated western influences such as jazz, surf guitar, ballroom and even Latin and African.

The album can be purchased via the link above (where you can also listen to some of the tracks), or on Amazon.

(Via Saksith Saiyasombut on Facebook.)

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Around the web: August 21-25

August 25, 2009

Some links that have caught my eye of late:

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Ozomatli play Bangkok

May 18, 2009

Ozomatli in Bangkok
Ulises Bella (L) and Jiro Yamaguchi (R).

The Los Angeles-based Latin funk/hip hop outfit Ozomatli1 is one of my favorite bands. But I’d never seen them live.

So I was surprised to learn, at the last minute, that Ozomatli were playing a free show here in Bangkok last night — a Sunday evening, no less.

Ozomatli, it turns out, are U.S. State Department cultural ambassadors, and the US embassy in Thailand put on the event to showcase American diversity and multiculturalism. (The band has also played in Myanmar and Vietnam on this trip.)

The show took place outside Bangkok’s glittering CentralWorld shopping mall — an incongruous setting — amid a light rain. Thai band Buddha Bless2 opened. There were just a few hundred people in attendance, so my pals and I were able to watch the show from the front row. Ozomatli were full of enthusiasm, humor, and positivity.

Embedded below is a 30-second mobile phone video I shot. (Click here to see it on YouTube, if you’re reading this via RSS.)

And here’re some cell phone pics:

Ozomatli in Bangkok
Justin “El Niño” Porée

Ozomatli in Bangkok
Asdru Sierra (L) and Wil-Dog Abers (R).

Ozomatli in Bangkok
US Ambassador Eric John joins in.

Well done, Ozomatli. Come back to Bangkok soon.

  1. More info on Ozomatli can be found on Wikipedia and on Amazon.com [↩]
  2. Warning: link to MySpace page. [↩]

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World-Wide “Stand by Me”

January 7, 2009

If this video (embedded above) doesn’t make you smile, nothing will.

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The new World Hum — and the top 40 travel songs of all time

December 15, 2008

One of my favorite Web sites1, World Hum — tag line: travel dispatches from a shrinking planet — has just launched a re-designed site. World Hum’s Jim Benning, Mike Yessis, and Valerie Conners discuss the re-vamping in this video.

New features include videos, bigger photos, and a column by Tom Swick2 There’s also a piece by Anthony Bourdain called “Subcontinental Homesick Blues,” about “why music can make a travel moment.”

The site also contains a new feature: “World Hum’s Top 40 Travel Songs of All Time.” The songs were voted on by World Hum contributors, and each song has a corresponding YouTube video. (You can see the entire list on one page here.)

I contributed a list of my top ten songs3 and then, once the voting was complete, I wrote a few sentences about Neil Young’s 1976 tune, “Long May You Run.” That song is at number 16 on the list. You can find what I wrote here (scroll down a bit).

  1. Back in 2001, the site ran an essay of mine called Soup to Nuts, about a funny experience I had here in Bangkok, long before I moved to Thailand. [↩]
  2. A few years back, Swick wrote a good story about Cuenca, Ecuador — where I lived for a year — for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. [↩]
  3. For the record, my top ten songs were:
    1. “Born to Run,” by Bruce Springsteen
    2. “This Must Be the Place,” by Talking Heads
    3. “Range Life,” by Pavement
    4. “Long May You Run,” by Neil Young
    5. “Just Like Honey,” by Jesus and Mary Chain
    6. “American Girl,” by Tom Petty
    7. “Love Shack,” by the B-52s
    8. “Passenger Side,” by Wilco
    9. “Float On,” by Modest Mouse
    10. “Good to Be on the Road Back Home,” by Cornershop. [↩]

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My Short Item in The Magazine

June 28, 2007

Bangkok Post's The Magazine

The current issue of The Magazine (pictured above), a bi-monthly glossy published by the Bangkok Post, contains a very brief item I wrote about Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. (You’ve heard me mention Wilco before, no doubt.) In each issue, various folks are asked to weigh in on their favorite album, book, or movie. The item isn’t online, sadly, but interested Bangkokians can find my thoughts on page eight.

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Wilco’s New Album

June 5, 2007

Wilco [not my image]

So have you been listening to Wilco’s new album, Sky Blue Sky? Well, why not? Get on it.

I think it’s a remarkably coherent — if staid — effort. Just like everything the band produces, the album grows on you. Slowly.

I agree with Rob Sheffield, who says this in his Rolling Stone review:

Sky Blue Sky (great title — Allman Brothers via Laurie Anderson) is understated, erratic, often beautiful, disarmingly simple music; it really sounds like six guys playing in a room, and no doubt that’s how they wanted it.

My favorite track so far is “Hate it Here” (number eight).

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What’s a Backronym?

April 26, 2007

I recently stumbled across this remarkably complex Wikipedia entry for “backronym”:

A backronym or bacronym is a portmanteau of backward and acronym[1] coined in 1983.[2][3] It usually refers to a phrase that is constructed backwards from the phrase’s abbreviation, the abbreviation being an initialism or acronym. Sometimes backronym refers to the initialism or acronym itself,[4] but usually in those cases, it is a “replacement” backronym, the abbreviation already having an associated phrase. When the backronym phrase becomes more popular than the original, the word becomes an anacronym.[5]

Got that?

Related: “I Must Take Issue With The Wikipedia Entry For ‘Weird Al’ Yankovic.”

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