“Snowpiercer” — a 2013 sci-fi film, directed by South Korean Bong Joon-ho, about people stuck aboard a train circling a frozen-over earth — is just as good as Kottke says.
Embedded above and on YouTube here: the trailer.
More from Grantland here.
If, like me, you enjoy post-apocalyptic thrillers, you should most certainly watch it.
I’m here in Bangkok helping out with our coverage following Thursday’s military coup. Here’s our main story as of Sunday early evening local time:
Pop-up protests are spreading around Thailand’s capital in a growing show of dissent against the latest in a long line of military juntas here.
The rallies, lasting an hour or two at a time, aren’t what the generals had in mind when they staged the 12th successful coup d’état in Thailand’s modern history Thursday. Troops seized one pro-democracy leader at a protest site in western Bangkok that day, firing shots in the air to disperse the crowds. Elsewhere in the city, soldiers detained four leaders of populist Red Shirts movement as the coup unfolded and later held two former prime ministers.
Separately, I penned a story yesterday about how social media is flourishing here despite warnings from the army:
In the early days of Thailand’s first coup in the smartphone age, social-media outlets appear to be ignoring warnings not to allow criticism of the military—and users aren’t holding back.
Meanwhile, my advice for following the news remains the same: Keep an eye on our home page and live stream. And check out my Twitter list of Bangkok journalists.
In addition, I’ve been Tweeting text and images, as ever, at @Newley.
From today’s WSJ: a Stormtrooper donates blood at the Red Cross in Bangkok.
That’s the name of a new Wall Street Journal documentary:
The Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong was once the densest place on earth, a virtually lawless labyrinth of crime, grime, commerce and hope. A Wall Street Journal documentary tracks its colorful legacy 20 years after its demolition.
The link above leads to the doc on WSJ.com, and there’s also a YouTube version.
Very much worth a watch.
Here’s a look back at some of my favorites from last year.
My pick: “Modern Vampires of the City,” by Vampire Weekend.
Here’s “Obvious Bicycle“:
And “Diane Young“:
Runner-up album:
“Beta Love,” by Ra Ra Riot. Here’s the title track.
Honorable mentions: Sky Ferreira’s “Night Time, My Time,” Daft Punk’s “Random Access Memories,” and Lorde’s “Pure Heroine.”
Of the books I read last year, two stand out, not least because they were written by pals.
First: Matt Gross’s “The Turk Who Loved Apples: And Other Tales of Losing My Way Around the World.”
This may not come as a surprise, since I’ve written about Matt’s work before.
The New York Times called the book “a joyful meditation on the spontaneity and unpredictability of the traveling life,” and said:
Gross ruminates on the loneliness of the road, the evanescent friendships that occasionally blossom into something deeper, the pleasures of wandering through cities without a map. Now settled in Brooklyn with his wife and daughters, he leaves little doubt that all his years of near-constant travel have only whetted his appetite for more. “The world,” he writes, has become “a massively expanding network of tiny points where anything at all could happen, and within each point another infinite web of possibilities.”
Worth checking out.
And second: “The Accidental Playground: Brooklyn Waterfront Narratives of the Undesigned and Unplanned,” by Dan Campo.
The Times included the book in a piece called “Suggested Reading for de Blasio,” and wrote:
Daniel Campo, a former New York City planner, considers the serendipitous development of Williamsburg and concludes: “In contrast to urban space produced through conventional planning and design, the accidental playground that evolved on the North Brooklyn waterfront generated vitality through immediate and largely unmeditated action. The waterfront was there for the claiming, and people went out and did just that without asking for permission, holding meetings or making plans.”
Indeed, it’s worth a read.
I haven’t yet seen many of the year’s most talked-about films, but I liked “Gravity” and “This is the End.” 2013 films I still intend to watch: “12 Years a Slave,” “The Act of Killing,” “Inside Llewyn Davis,” and “Computer Chess.”
And finally, here are some in-depth stories, blog posts, reviews, and other pieces of writing I liked this year:
I won’t be posting anything here until after the new year.
In the meantime, you may be able to find me on Twitter.
Happy holidays!
(Image via.)
That’s the subject of a Quartz story I wrote yesterday.
A quick follow-up to my post Tuesday about anti-amnesty demonstrations morphing into an effort to topple Yingluck.
Here’s what’s up:
1. The general strike fizzled, as the AP reports.
2. Have we reached a stalemate? The the big picture, again from the AP: Thaksin isn’t returning to Thailand anytime soon. Yingluck and the ruling Pheu Thai party over-reached in pushing the amnesty bill. But Yingluck and the Thaksin-linked party still have an electoral mandate.
3. For a look at the protests’ economic impact, here’s a Wall Street Journal Q&A with Paiboon Nalinthrangkurn, chair of the Federation of Thai Capital Market Organization.
4. Protests, though smaller now, continue.
…just now from China’s official Xinhua news agency:
China will reduce the number of crimes subject to death penalty "step by step," a key reform document said Friday.
— Xinhua News Agency (@XHNews) November 15, 2013
China will abolish the "reeducation through labor" system as part of efforts to improve human rights and judicial practices.
— Xinhua News Agency (@XHNews) November 15, 2013
China will loosen its decades-long one-child population policy, allowing couples to have two children if one of them is an only child.
— Xinhua News Agency (@XHNews) November 15, 2013
