Steve Hely needed to know how to write very well in order to write as miserably as he does in How I Became a Famous Novelist . In a satirical novel that is a gag-packed assault on fictitious best-selling fiction,Hely, who has been a writer for David Letterman and American Dad , takes aim at genre after genre and manages to savage them all. You are invited to trawl the mass-market fiction in your local bookstore if you think Hely is making much up.
Since he needs a pretext for this batch of dead-on parodies, Hely invents the calculating Pete Tarslaw,hack extraordinaire. And How I Became a Famous Novelist needs to give Pete some motivation. So in a rare show of genuine literary laziness, Hely jolts Pete with the news that his college girlfriend is getting married. This qualifies as instant, just-add-water motivation. Pete wants to be a hugely popular writer so he can make this girlfriend sorry she's marrying somebody else.
With that, Hely is off to the races.He has Pete start analysing popular books to see what makes them sell.That gives Hely a pretext to lard How I Became a Famous Writer with a wide array of supposedly viable titles, main characters, ad lines ("Blood is the new pink") and crazy premises.Sample thriller plot:"A New York City cop discovers that some Hasidic Jews have found a long-lost 11th commandment that changes everything."
Here are some sample titles from Hely's version of the New York Times best-seller list, which is mimicked with particular glee:Cumin: The Spice That Changed the World ,Indict to Unnerve ,The Jane Austen Women's Investigators Club and Sageknights of Darkhorn . The list also includes a sci-fi novel with the following synopsis:"In a post-nuclear future inhabited by intelligent cockroaches, Lieutenant Cccyxx discovers there was once a race of sentient humans."
At the risk of shamelessly cannibalising Hely's humour, here are a few more. Sample military adventure title:Talon of the Warshrike . Sample writerly process: The author of "Warshrike"explains that he got a plot idea while in Venice with his ex-wife; while on a night cruise he looked back at the city and thought,"What if somebody blew this place up?" Finally and most lovably, there is this suspenseful moment from a brisk novel in which a US president is warned about a national security crisis:"Sir, how much do you know about outer space?"
Gradually Pete begins to shape his own version of a winning formula.He is goaded by the example of a folksy, literary type named Preston Brooks who appeals greatly to women and who says things - in person, not in print - like the following, as he gives a tour of his office to a TV interviewer:"I call this the dance hall.Because characters will appear, and introduce themselves and ask me to dance. The character always leads. I bow, accept, dance for a while." Is it any wonder that Pete dreams up a scene in which a young woman admits she's never been to a formal dance in high school - and then a kindly gent named Silas Quilter dances with her in a cornfield?
That novel of Pete's is The Tornado Ashes Club . It involves a grandson who fulfils his grandmother's wish to find a tornado into which she can throw the ashes of her long-lost lover,Luke, who appears in a young, handsome incarnation during the book's picturesquely European World War II flashbacks."Use words to describe old ladies that make them sound beautiful [graceful, regal, etc.]", Pete tells himself about pitching his story to a book-buying audience. He also concocts many other rules, like a dictum to dream up highway scenes "making driving seem poetic and magical" in order to tap into the audiobooks market.(Most audiobooks are listened to in cars.)
The Tornado Ashes Club really does stink. So how closely is Hely going to tether How I Became a Famous Novelist to this one parody? Happily, he concocts so many other diversions and advances Pete's story so deftly that a little of Pete's bad book is allowed to go a long way. And without really straining credulity, Pete's travels through the world of publishing become exuberantly far-flung.
He crosses paths with a businessman who has been inspired by a selfhelp book called Caesar, CEO: Business Secrets of the Ancient Romans and thus refers to a rival company as Carthage; a drab, well-known literary figure who teaches a writing class ("For ease and accuracy I'll call her SpaghettiHair HamsterFace," Pete says) and an editor who makes sadly apt notes about Pete's manuscript."Does a dying deer really smell faintly of cinnamon?" she inquires."You use the word sallow four times, and I'm not sure you ever use it right."
Revealingly, Pete's research project never extends to the writing of endings.That may be because Hely doesn't know how to end this book. In the final chapters he torpedoes Pete's cynicism in ways that will disappoint anyone who was enjoying the jaundiced humour. And there are contrived plot complications.("An interesting fact about the US attorney's office in Boston is that they serve good coffee.")
But the damage is already done:Hely has deftly clobbered the popularbook business. He has taken aim at lucrative "tidy candy-packaged novels you wrapped up and gave as presents",the kinds of books that go "from store shelves to home shelves to used-book sales unread". His complaints about such books are very funny. They'd be even funnier if they weren't true.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
MEDIA PRIMA OFFERS TO BUY NEW STRAITS TIMES
Media Prima, Malaysia's biggest publicly traded publisher, offered to buy out the country's oldest newspaper group at a discount to its share price.
Media Prima is offering one new share for each held in New Straits Times Press, known as NSTP, valuing each share at 2 ringgit (Bt20).
In addition, the newspaper group's shareholders will get one free warrant for every five shares they exchange. This represents a 19 per cent discount to NSTP's last traded price of 2.46 ringgit on Thursday.
Media Prima's managing director Amrin Awaluddin said the offer is "fair' based on NSTP's average share price over the past year, and described as "speculative" a recent surge in the stock.
The offer values the transaction at about 246 million ringgit, based on Bloomberg News calculations of the number of NSTP shares not owned by Media prima.
The offer ends more than two months of speculation that led to a 65-per-cent surge in NSTP's stock price since August 5, when the company announced that its main shareholders were considering options such as privatisation to boost shareholder value.
NSTP said in a separate statement at the weekend that its board does not intend to seek any alternative offers.
"Under the proposed transaction, the enlarged media entity will have the potential to emerge as one of the largest media groups in Malaysia in terms of sales and total shareholders' funds," Amrin told reporters in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
The buyout would help Media Prima, which controls four television stations in Malaysia, add earnings from the New Straits Times, Berita Harian, and Harian Metro newspapers as advertising income rebounds, Sharizan Rosely, an analyst at CIMB Investment Bank, wrote in a report before the announcement.
Earnings at New Straits Times will increase as companies spend more on newspaper advertising, said Sharizan, who kept a "neutral" rating on the stock pending the offer details.
The offer will become unconditional once Media Prima's stake hits 51 per cent, after which it will proceed to de-list NSTP, Amrin said.
Media Prima already owns 43.3 per cent of NSTP, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Amrin expects to complete the buyout by the end of the year, including the de-listing of NSTP.
Media Prima wants to make NSTP a subsidiary, instead of an associate, so it can consolidate its earnings, he said.
The acquisition would boost Media Prima's annual revenue to more than 1 billion ringgit and profit to more than 140 million ringgit once the companies' finances are consolidated, Media Prima said in a statement.
To finance its working capital and investments, Media Prima also intends to sell 150 million ringgit of bonds attached with 50 million warrants that are convertible into shares in the consolidated group.
Maybank Investment Bank raised its recommendation on Malaysia's media industry last month to "neutral" from "underweight" following a rebound in advertising income and consumer confidence.
Advertising spending in newspapers increased 6 per cent to 291.2 million ringgit in July from a year earlier, ending monthly declines that started in October, Maybank wrote in September.
Television and radio advertising expenditure rose 20 per cent in July, according to the report.
Malaysia's economy may shrink less than previously forecast this year amid signs of a global recovery from the worst recession since the 1930s, the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research said October 14.
Media Prima and NSTP shares were suspended from trading in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, and will resume on Monday.
The buy-out would help Media prima, which controls four television stations in Malaysia, add earnings from three newspapers as advertising income rebounds.
Media Prima is offering one new share for each held in New Straits Times Press, known as NSTP, valuing each share at 2 ringgit (Bt20).
In addition, the newspaper group's shareholders will get one free warrant for every five shares they exchange. This represents a 19 per cent discount to NSTP's last traded price of 2.46 ringgit on Thursday.
Media Prima's managing director Amrin Awaluddin said the offer is "fair' based on NSTP's average share price over the past year, and described as "speculative" a recent surge in the stock.
The offer values the transaction at about 246 million ringgit, based on Bloomberg News calculations of the number of NSTP shares not owned by Media prima.
The offer ends more than two months of speculation that led to a 65-per-cent surge in NSTP's stock price since August 5, when the company announced that its main shareholders were considering options such as privatisation to boost shareholder value.
NSTP said in a separate statement at the weekend that its board does not intend to seek any alternative offers.
"Under the proposed transaction, the enlarged media entity will have the potential to emerge as one of the largest media groups in Malaysia in terms of sales and total shareholders' funds," Amrin told reporters in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
The buyout would help Media Prima, which controls four television stations in Malaysia, add earnings from the New Straits Times, Berita Harian, and Harian Metro newspapers as advertising income rebounds, Sharizan Rosely, an analyst at CIMB Investment Bank, wrote in a report before the announcement.
Earnings at New Straits Times will increase as companies spend more on newspaper advertising, said Sharizan, who kept a "neutral" rating on the stock pending the offer details.
The offer will become unconditional once Media Prima's stake hits 51 per cent, after which it will proceed to de-list NSTP, Amrin said.
Media Prima already owns 43.3 per cent of NSTP, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Amrin expects to complete the buyout by the end of the year, including the de-listing of NSTP.
Media Prima wants to make NSTP a subsidiary, instead of an associate, so it can consolidate its earnings, he said.
The acquisition would boost Media Prima's annual revenue to more than 1 billion ringgit and profit to more than 140 million ringgit once the companies' finances are consolidated, Media Prima said in a statement.
To finance its working capital and investments, Media Prima also intends to sell 150 million ringgit of bonds attached with 50 million warrants that are convertible into shares in the consolidated group.
Maybank Investment Bank raised its recommendation on Malaysia's media industry last month to "neutral" from "underweight" following a rebound in advertising income and consumer confidence.
Advertising spending in newspapers increased 6 per cent to 291.2 million ringgit in July from a year earlier, ending monthly declines that started in October, Maybank wrote in September.
Television and radio advertising expenditure rose 20 per cent in July, according to the report.
Malaysia's economy may shrink less than previously forecast this year amid signs of a global recovery from the worst recession since the 1930s, the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research said October 14.
Media Prima and NSTP shares were suspended from trading in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, and will resume on Monday.
The buy-out would help Media prima, which controls four television stations in Malaysia, add earnings from three newspapers as advertising income rebounds.
Times scraps sale of Boston Globe
The New York Times Co said it had given up its plan to sell the Boston Globe and related businesses after drastic cuts it imposed on the daily newspaper earlier this year improved its financial position.
The announcement caps a painful odyssey for the 137-year-old Boston Globe that began earlier this year when the Times threatened to close the paper if it could not get its unions to agree to deep cost cuts.
Selling the Globe would have been a dismal exit from Boston for the Times.The company spent $1.1 billion to buy the Globe in 1993, at the time the most money ever paid for a single US newspaper. The offers it reportedly received for the Globe this month were less than 10% of what it paid.
The Times did not mention the bids and officials were unavailable for comment about whether they played a role in the decision to stop the sale. The company instead said the Globe 's financial outlook has brightened.
"The Globe has significantly improved its financial footing by following the strategic plan it set out at the beginning of the year," Times chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr and chief executive Janet Robinson wrote to Globe workers on Wednesday.
"All along, we explicitly recognised that a careful restructuring of the Globe was one possible route and, thanks to your hard work, that is precisely what has been done," they wrote.
"I think many of us felt that the more we learned about the potential buyers,the more the Times seemed to be the best possible owner for us," said Michael Paulson, a reporter who covers religion for the Globe.
When the decision was announced in the newsroom, he said "there was no celebration but there was a sense of relief."
The Times, in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission,said it was still considering options for the Telegram & Gazette , a daily paper that serves Worcester, Massachusetts, a city about 40 miles west of Boston.
The Times wants to reach a decision soon "and we will provide a full update to our colleagues as quickly as possible,"Sulzberger and Robinson wrote.
It did not say if it was still trying to sell its interest in the company that owns the Boston Red Sox baseball team.
The announcement caps a painful odyssey for the 137-year-old Boston Globe that began earlier this year when the Times threatened to close the paper if it could not get its unions to agree to deep cost cuts.
Selling the Globe would have been a dismal exit from Boston for the Times.The company spent $1.1 billion to buy the Globe in 1993, at the time the most money ever paid for a single US newspaper. The offers it reportedly received for the Globe this month were less than 10% of what it paid.
The Times did not mention the bids and officials were unavailable for comment about whether they played a role in the decision to stop the sale. The company instead said the Globe 's financial outlook has brightened.
"The Globe has significantly improved its financial footing by following the strategic plan it set out at the beginning of the year," Times chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr and chief executive Janet Robinson wrote to Globe workers on Wednesday.
"All along, we explicitly recognised that a careful restructuring of the Globe was one possible route and, thanks to your hard work, that is precisely what has been done," they wrote.
"I think many of us felt that the more we learned about the potential buyers,the more the Times seemed to be the best possible owner for us," said Michael Paulson, a reporter who covers religion for the Globe.
When the decision was announced in the newsroom, he said "there was no celebration but there was a sense of relief."
The Times, in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission,said it was still considering options for the Telegram & Gazette , a daily paper that serves Worcester, Massachusetts, a city about 40 miles west of Boston.
The Times wants to reach a decision soon "and we will provide a full update to our colleagues as quickly as possible,"Sulzberger and Robinson wrote.
It did not say if it was still trying to sell its interest in the company that owns the Boston Red Sox baseball team.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
TIME FOR ASIAN WRITERS TO SHINE
Southeast Asian writers were urged by bestselling author Paul Theroux to tell their stories with honesty and integrity, without bias and hidden agendas.
Theroux says writers are "seldom well compensated" for their efforts, especially poets who are often underrated for their contributions to society.
But with the emergence of Asia as a new global power, he says regional governments would do well to support their own writers, he says in honouting eight regional winners of the Southeast Asian Writers Awards recently.
At the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, the venue of the gala event, Theroux reminded a packed hall that classic writers of old from abroad such as Joseph Conrad and Somerset Maugham need not be the only voices depicting the region.
"It is time your own writers write the stories."
The world should wake up to the big changes sweeping the Orient.
The Asia Theroux wrote in his latest book "Ghost Train To The Eastern Star" traces the magical leap made by countries such as Vietnam, Singapore and Thailand the past 40 years.
"I first came to Thailand and Vietnam in 1969," says Theroux who taught literature at the National University of Singapore from 1968-71.
His first book on Asia, called "The Great Railway Bazaar", 30 years ago spoke about a chaotic capital that was Bangkok and of colourful trips to Indochina during the Vietnam War years.
Those tales now serve as historical documents for a time and place long gone.
For stories to survive, Theroux stresses the need for honesty.
In good writing, he says, you need to exercise ethics and integrity.
His speech before His Royal Highness Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn and his Royal Consort HRH Princess Srirasmi was the highpoint of the evening.
The sponsors of Sea-Write, one of the most prestigious corporate social responsibility events in the Kingdom, include Bangkok Bank, Thai Airways International, Mandarin Oriental, Bank of Thailand, Export-Import Bank of Thailand, Thai Beverage, the Rex Morgan Foundation, the Chumbhot-Pantip Foundation, Toshiba Thailand and King Power Complex.
Theroux says he owes much of his success to a table he made in Singapore in 1970.
The table, which could be taken apart, as Theroux travels often, was made by a carpenter off Orchard Road.
"Today Orchard Road has changed so much. None of the old shops remain," he adds.
But the table, bought for just 240 Singapore dollars (Bt5,800), has served him well.
It has followed him to Britain, where he lived for many years and then to Hawaii where he now resides.
"I couldn't work on a wobbly table. The carpenter made the table out of hard wood with fatlegs," he says.
It stood a bit lower than most tables to accommodate writing and typing work.
Therous still writes long hand before typing the manuscript.
About 40 books owed their origins to this table.
Towards he end of his stay in Britain, Theroux wrote "Kingdom By The Sea" in 1978. It became one of his most celebrated works.
"It written at a time of the Falklands War," he recalls. "I was disturbed by the event. I was against the war."
"The Argentine writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges says it best when he compares it to tow bald men fighting over a comb."
Commenting on today's digital age, Theroux says he trusts his calligraphy more than keyboards.
People should not be fooled by the hype drummed up by computer companies and Internet firms. Books and newspapers will never be replaced by the electronic medium, he says.
The prine medium is far cheaper than the new medium and does not require expensive monthly fees and repairs.
Theroux's steady income testifies writers can still live off their books.
"The Great Railway Bazaar" was reprinted 52 times, providing royalty income for the writer.
Some of his works have also been made into films. His books "Dr Slaughter" became the movie "Half Moon Street" (1986) with Sigourney Weaver; "Chinese Box" (1997) with Harrison Ford and "Saint Jack" (1979) with Ben Gazzara.
But it is his non-fiction works that Theroux is best known for.
His trip to Asia followed his stint as a Peace Corp volunteer in Malawi in 1963.
It was his involvement in politics in Malawi that led to his expulsion in 1965.
After two years in Uganda, he travelled to Singapore, the backdrop to "Saint Jack".
The tale of an American hustler who becomes involved with the world's oldest profession during the "rest and recreation" years of the Vietnam War is regarded today as an invaluable historical work.
So much of Singapore has changed and many of the places no longer eixts.
In 1971, he quit the English Department to begin a full-time writing career.
"I have never held a job since."
Theroux says writers are "seldom well compensated" for their efforts, especially poets who are often underrated for their contributions to society.
But with the emergence of Asia as a new global power, he says regional governments would do well to support their own writers, he says in honouting eight regional winners of the Southeast Asian Writers Awards recently.
At the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, the venue of the gala event, Theroux reminded a packed hall that classic writers of old from abroad such as Joseph Conrad and Somerset Maugham need not be the only voices depicting the region.
"It is time your own writers write the stories."
The world should wake up to the big changes sweeping the Orient.
The Asia Theroux wrote in his latest book "Ghost Train To The Eastern Star" traces the magical leap made by countries such as Vietnam, Singapore and Thailand the past 40 years.
"I first came to Thailand and Vietnam in 1969," says Theroux who taught literature at the National University of Singapore from 1968-71.
His first book on Asia, called "The Great Railway Bazaar", 30 years ago spoke about a chaotic capital that was Bangkok and of colourful trips to Indochina during the Vietnam War years.
Those tales now serve as historical documents for a time and place long gone.
For stories to survive, Theroux stresses the need for honesty.
In good writing, he says, you need to exercise ethics and integrity.
His speech before His Royal Highness Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn and his Royal Consort HRH Princess Srirasmi was the highpoint of the evening.
The sponsors of Sea-Write, one of the most prestigious corporate social responsibility events in the Kingdom, include Bangkok Bank, Thai Airways International, Mandarin Oriental, Bank of Thailand, Export-Import Bank of Thailand, Thai Beverage, the Rex Morgan Foundation, the Chumbhot-Pantip Foundation, Toshiba Thailand and King Power Complex.
Theroux says he owes much of his success to a table he made in Singapore in 1970.
The table, which could be taken apart, as Theroux travels often, was made by a carpenter off Orchard Road.
"Today Orchard Road has changed so much. None of the old shops remain," he adds.
But the table, bought for just 240 Singapore dollars (Bt5,800), has served him well.
It has followed him to Britain, where he lived for many years and then to Hawaii where he now resides.
"I couldn't work on a wobbly table. The carpenter made the table out of hard wood with fatlegs," he says.
It stood a bit lower than most tables to accommodate writing and typing work.
Therous still writes long hand before typing the manuscript.
About 40 books owed their origins to this table.
Towards he end of his stay in Britain, Theroux wrote "Kingdom By The Sea" in 1978. It became one of his most celebrated works.
"It written at a time of the Falklands War," he recalls. "I was disturbed by the event. I was against the war."
"The Argentine writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges says it best when he compares it to tow bald men fighting over a comb."
Commenting on today's digital age, Theroux says he trusts his calligraphy more than keyboards.
People should not be fooled by the hype drummed up by computer companies and Internet firms. Books and newspapers will never be replaced by the electronic medium, he says.
The prine medium is far cheaper than the new medium and does not require expensive monthly fees and repairs.
Theroux's steady income testifies writers can still live off their books.
"The Great Railway Bazaar" was reprinted 52 times, providing royalty income for the writer.
Some of his works have also been made into films. His books "Dr Slaughter" became the movie "Half Moon Street" (1986) with Sigourney Weaver; "Chinese Box" (1997) with Harrison Ford and "Saint Jack" (1979) with Ben Gazzara.
But it is his non-fiction works that Theroux is best known for.
His trip to Asia followed his stint as a Peace Corp volunteer in Malawi in 1963.
It was his involvement in politics in Malawi that led to his expulsion in 1965.
After two years in Uganda, he travelled to Singapore, the backdrop to "Saint Jack".
The tale of an American hustler who becomes involved with the world's oldest profession during the "rest and recreation" years of the Vietnam War is regarded today as an invaluable historical work.
So much of Singapore has changed and many of the places no longer eixts.
In 1971, he quit the English Department to begin a full-time writing career.
"I have never held a job since."
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Pared down, but still meaty
Reacting to the anticipatory effects generated by last week's commencement of construction of the tent, Bangkok fashionistas who bump into one another every other night at some party or other started bidding adieu with the new catchphrase "Bye, see you at the tent next week!"
Disregarding the daily ominous grey clouds that pose a threat of rain, Bangkok is getting into just the right mood for Elle Fashion Week (EFW). September and early October saw several collection and brand launches.
The Bangkok Fashion Society premiered its latest collection by holding a pop-up show a few weeks ago. Celebrity leatherwear designer Tipanan Krairiksh welcomed a large gathering of journos and invited guests at the opening of her new signature shop at Siam Paragon last week. Munchu's, Vickteerut and its sister line Robshop, together with hip children's wear boutique Rhapsody launched their new offerings this past Sunday at Fallabella. Elle Fashion Week couldn't hope for a more dynamic warm-up.
But what is in store for the fashion crowd on this year's EFW runway? First, the number of shows has dropped to 12, not including the two special promotional shows by CentralWorld and the one by the Department of Export Promotion showcasing its brands in its Designers' Room: Now. Fortunately, size does not matter when it comes to fashion (unless you're a model) and EFW, while losing a few big names such as Issue, Greyhound and Headquarter, has managed to lure back onto the runway some show magnets like Sretsis and Kloset Red Carpet as well as keeping event favourites ranging from Zenithorial and Disaya to Senada Theory on its schedule one more time.
If there's one thing fashionistas will miss at this year's Elle Fashion Week,which kicks off today, it's surely the leading streetwear brands that offer menswear,notably Greyhound and Headquarter.However, a show-stopper like Zenthorial will be present to guarantee excitement with its latest collection celebrating the works of revered fashion lensman Amat Nimitpark, who has been working in the Thai fashion industry for over 25 years.Its display, together with the one that will be put on by 27 Friday, which is also going to present menswear to its huge,loyal fan base, should secure a full-house tent.
Despite the fewer show days and a less-packed schedule, Elle Fashion Week will not be compromising on style diversity.The event welcomes regular masters from Kai, Pisit to Nagara, all of whom will be rolling out their presentations on the same day to ensure that fashion followers coming to keep track of their creative mastery get full benefit by attending. Last year's young designer Vatit Itthi will also be returning to the catwalk to demonstrate that couture and meticulous cutting do not belong to only the seasoned masters.The design duo will be adhering to the
international fashion calendar by showing off their Spring/Summer collection emphasising texture and layering.
Making its first appearance at Elle Fashion Week is Olanor, a brainchild of former Theatre's design assistant Thanes Boonprasan, who has already taken this new brand to several trade shows and fairs abroad.Scheduled to make the scene on the same day as Kai, Nagara and Pisit, the brand will have the opportunity to attract the attention of the same crowd of trendsetters who appreciate refinement and luxury.
Now, now, the rest is girls talk. EFW has embraced all the darlings of young female fashionistas to the fold once again.Sretsis, Senada, Kloset Red Carpet, Disaya and Asava have promised to continue to be show magnets this year. Disaya will open the event with a collection that glistens even in an era of darkness called Celestial Warrior. Asava tackles the concept of changing lifestyles brought about by the economic downturn in its Wall Street Goddess collection. Sretsis goes back to its seemingly basic yet slightly eccentric Metamorphosis theme. The collection celebrates design as a process of transformation and will feature the season's must-haves, such as reversible dresses.Kloset Red Carpet puts on the grand finale to the four-day event with a collection inspired by Tangrams, the puzzle board game.
EFW will also be featuring two special shows by CentralWorld that will see models strutting on the runway wearing the current season's items created by international brands like Mango, Castro and Topshop to offer fashionistas mix-and-match ideas.
Elle Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2009 at CentralWorld begins today until Sunday.
Disregarding the daily ominous grey clouds that pose a threat of rain, Bangkok is getting into just the right mood for Elle Fashion Week (EFW). September and early October saw several collection and brand launches.
The Bangkok Fashion Society premiered its latest collection by holding a pop-up show a few weeks ago. Celebrity leatherwear designer Tipanan Krairiksh welcomed a large gathering of journos and invited guests at the opening of her new signature shop at Siam Paragon last week. Munchu's, Vickteerut and its sister line Robshop, together with hip children's wear boutique Rhapsody launched their new offerings this past Sunday at Fallabella. Elle Fashion Week couldn't hope for a more dynamic warm-up.
But what is in store for the fashion crowd on this year's EFW runway? First, the number of shows has dropped to 12, not including the two special promotional shows by CentralWorld and the one by the Department of Export Promotion showcasing its brands in its Designers' Room: Now. Fortunately, size does not matter when it comes to fashion (unless you're a model) and EFW, while losing a few big names such as Issue, Greyhound and Headquarter, has managed to lure back onto the runway some show magnets like Sretsis and Kloset Red Carpet as well as keeping event favourites ranging from Zenithorial and Disaya to Senada Theory on its schedule one more time.
If there's one thing fashionistas will miss at this year's Elle Fashion Week,which kicks off today, it's surely the leading streetwear brands that offer menswear,notably Greyhound and Headquarter.However, a show-stopper like Zenthorial will be present to guarantee excitement with its latest collection celebrating the works of revered fashion lensman Amat Nimitpark, who has been working in the Thai fashion industry for over 25 years.Its display, together with the one that will be put on by 27 Friday, which is also going to present menswear to its huge,loyal fan base, should secure a full-house tent.
Despite the fewer show days and a less-packed schedule, Elle Fashion Week will not be compromising on style diversity.The event welcomes regular masters from Kai, Pisit to Nagara, all of whom will be rolling out their presentations on the same day to ensure that fashion followers coming to keep track of their creative mastery get full benefit by attending. Last year's young designer Vatit Itthi will also be returning to the catwalk to demonstrate that couture and meticulous cutting do not belong to only the seasoned masters.The design duo will be adhering to the
international fashion calendar by showing off their Spring/Summer collection emphasising texture and layering.
Making its first appearance at Elle Fashion Week is Olanor, a brainchild of former Theatre's design assistant Thanes Boonprasan, who has already taken this new brand to several trade shows and fairs abroad.Scheduled to make the scene on the same day as Kai, Nagara and Pisit, the brand will have the opportunity to attract the attention of the same crowd of trendsetters who appreciate refinement and luxury.
Now, now, the rest is girls talk. EFW has embraced all the darlings of young female fashionistas to the fold once again.Sretsis, Senada, Kloset Red Carpet, Disaya and Asava have promised to continue to be show magnets this year. Disaya will open the event with a collection that glistens even in an era of darkness called Celestial Warrior. Asava tackles the concept of changing lifestyles brought about by the economic downturn in its Wall Street Goddess collection. Sretsis goes back to its seemingly basic yet slightly eccentric Metamorphosis theme. The collection celebrates design as a process of transformation and will feature the season's must-haves, such as reversible dresses.Kloset Red Carpet puts on the grand finale to the four-day event with a collection inspired by Tangrams, the puzzle board game.
EFW will also be featuring two special shows by CentralWorld that will see models strutting on the runway wearing the current season's items created by international brands like Mango, Castro and Topshop to offer fashionistas mix-and-match ideas.
Elle Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2009 at CentralWorld begins today until Sunday.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
A "French chef" whose appeal doesn't translate well in France
Julia Child may have been the US's best-known "French chef", but here in Paris, few know her fabled cookbooks, let alone her name.
Posters for the movie Julie & Julia were plastered across the city before its release here on Wednesday. But the movie was being anticipated more for Meryl Streep's performance as Child than for any particular interest in Child, the principal author of Mastering the Art of French Cooking , who died in 2004.Child's book - beloved by US cooks for almost 50 years and now a bestseller because of the film - has never been translated into French, said Anne Perrier, a manager at Galignani, an English-language bookshop here."It's the vision of a revisited France, adapted to the American taste, at a time when tastes were lifeless," she said.
In an interview in the French daily newspaper Le Figaro last week, Streep said:"What surprises me is that the French don't know her at all. While for Americans, she was one of the best ambassadors of France ... since Lafayette!"
French food experts are divided about Child and her cooking. Some say she caricatured French cuisine in her book and cooking show, making it seem too heavy and formal. Others believe she demystified it and see her as a role model in France, where cooking shows are rare and cuisine is not necessarily viewed as something anyone can interpret.
"Julia Child's cuisine is academic and bourgeois," said Julie Andrieu, a television personality and cookery book author."It shows that in America, the cliche of beef, baguette and canard farci remains."
For Jean-Claude Ribaut, the food critic at Le Monde , Child was more like "a mediator who promoted the French lifestyle in the United States, but had no influence on restaurateurs".
But some chefs say they hope that the film will rehabilitate French cooking in the US. Gilles Epie, a chef who met Child in Los Angeles at a birthday party for her in the early 1990s, thinks French cooking has been tarnished as stodgy.
"Americans have really slammed French cuisine," Epie said."They think we only eat boeuf bourguignon and rabbit stew, which is wrong."
Before taking over the Citrus Etoile,in the 8th Arrondissement, Epie ran the Los Angeles restaurant L'Orangerie for more than three years. He remembered with distaste the strictness of US health rules about food.
"My fish shop in Santa Monica smelled like a pharmacy" instead of like fresh fish, he said."And when I asked for a three-month-old baby lamb, like you can find here, they thought I was crazy and nearly called the police."
But some French chefs say they believe that Child, through the film, could have an impact on contemporary French cooking, or at least make boeuf bourguignon,a traditional dish currently absent from most French menus, fashionable again.
"She explains her recipes like a housewife, but she knows how to do it and she does it genuinely," said Guy Savoy, owner of the restaurant that bears his name in Paris. He met Child in 1981 in Massachusetts and remembered her as "a real character, gentle and affable".
Andrieu, the cookbook author, said that despite Child's cliched recipes, her style could be defined as a "combination of scientific and empirical virtues" that helped explain why US authors wrote better cookbooks than the French.
"The French think that they are natural-born cooks; they prepare a dish off the top of their heads, without testing it," she said."In France, we rush over explanations."
After watching Julie & Julia , Andrieu said, she felt compelled to go home and make boeuf bourguignon according to Child's recipe."I cut the flour in half,and it turned out to be the best I had ever made," she said.
Epie even thinks that Child's story should encourage the French to discuss their cuisine in a more democratic way.
He is one of the few respected chefs in Paris to offer US food on his menu,including his signature dish: a crab cake a la francaise, prepared with shellfish oil instead of mayonnaise.
"I want to do Julia Child, but Julia Child with real fish, real lobster, with eels to shuck and rabbit to bone," he said."That's my dream."
Posters for the movie Julie & Julia were plastered across the city before its release here on Wednesday. But the movie was being anticipated more for Meryl Streep's performance as Child than for any particular interest in Child, the principal author of Mastering the Art of French Cooking , who died in 2004.Child's book - beloved by US cooks for almost 50 years and now a bestseller because of the film - has never been translated into French, said Anne Perrier, a manager at Galignani, an English-language bookshop here."It's the vision of a revisited France, adapted to the American taste, at a time when tastes were lifeless," she said.
In an interview in the French daily newspaper Le Figaro last week, Streep said:"What surprises me is that the French don't know her at all. While for Americans, she was one of the best ambassadors of France ... since Lafayette!"
French food experts are divided about Child and her cooking. Some say she caricatured French cuisine in her book and cooking show, making it seem too heavy and formal. Others believe she demystified it and see her as a role model in France, where cooking shows are rare and cuisine is not necessarily viewed as something anyone can interpret.
"Julia Child's cuisine is academic and bourgeois," said Julie Andrieu, a television personality and cookery book author."It shows that in America, the cliche of beef, baguette and canard farci remains."
For Jean-Claude Ribaut, the food critic at Le Monde , Child was more like "a mediator who promoted the French lifestyle in the United States, but had no influence on restaurateurs".
But some chefs say they hope that the film will rehabilitate French cooking in the US. Gilles Epie, a chef who met Child in Los Angeles at a birthday party for her in the early 1990s, thinks French cooking has been tarnished as stodgy.
"Americans have really slammed French cuisine," Epie said."They think we only eat boeuf bourguignon and rabbit stew, which is wrong."
Before taking over the Citrus Etoile,in the 8th Arrondissement, Epie ran the Los Angeles restaurant L'Orangerie for more than three years. He remembered with distaste the strictness of US health rules about food.
"My fish shop in Santa Monica smelled like a pharmacy" instead of like fresh fish, he said."And when I asked for a three-month-old baby lamb, like you can find here, they thought I was crazy and nearly called the police."
But some French chefs say they believe that Child, through the film, could have an impact on contemporary French cooking, or at least make boeuf bourguignon,a traditional dish currently absent from most French menus, fashionable again.
"She explains her recipes like a housewife, but she knows how to do it and she does it genuinely," said Guy Savoy, owner of the restaurant that bears his name in Paris. He met Child in 1981 in Massachusetts and remembered her as "a real character, gentle and affable".
Andrieu, the cookbook author, said that despite Child's cliched recipes, her style could be defined as a "combination of scientific and empirical virtues" that helped explain why US authors wrote better cookbooks than the French.
"The French think that they are natural-born cooks; they prepare a dish off the top of their heads, without testing it," she said."In France, we rush over explanations."
After watching Julie & Julia , Andrieu said, she felt compelled to go home and make boeuf bourguignon according to Child's recipe."I cut the flour in half,and it turned out to be the best I had ever made," she said.
Epie even thinks that Child's story should encourage the French to discuss their cuisine in a more democratic way.
He is one of the few respected chefs in Paris to offer US food on his menu,including his signature dish: a crab cake a la francaise, prepared with shellfish oil instead of mayonnaise.
"I want to do Julia Child, but Julia Child with real fish, real lobster, with eels to shuck and rabbit to bone," he said."That's my dream."
Sunday, October 11, 2009
FASHION PHOTOGRAPHER IRVING PENN DIES AT 92
Influential fashion photographer Irving Penn, known for his elegant, minimalist portraits, died Wednesday. He was 92.
Penn was long associated with Vogue magazine, where he first began working in the 1940s and won renown for his calm, classical compositions.
He died at home in New York, said a representative for Pace/MacGill Gallery, which represents Penn's work.
Although he was most famous for photographs of glamorous models - including a black-and-white, nude Gisele Bundchen - he brought the same graceful simplicity and accuracy to pictures of Peruvian peasants or New Guinea tribesmen.
"Instead of spontaneity, Mr Penn Provided the illusion of a seance, his gaze precisely describing the profile of a Balenciaga coat or of a Moroccan djellaba in a way that could almost mesmerize the viewer," The New York Times said in an obituary.
"Nothing escaped the edges of his photographs unless he commanded it."
His photographs regularly fetch tens of thousands of dollars under the hammer. An auction scheduled at Christie's in New York on Thursday was to feature some 15 prints by Penn.
Penn was long associated with Vogue magazine, where he first began working in the 1940s and won renown for his calm, classical compositions.
He died at home in New York, said a representative for Pace/MacGill Gallery, which represents Penn's work.
Although he was most famous for photographs of glamorous models - including a black-and-white, nude Gisele Bundchen - he brought the same graceful simplicity and accuracy to pictures of Peruvian peasants or New Guinea tribesmen.
"Instead of spontaneity, Mr Penn Provided the illusion of a seance, his gaze precisely describing the profile of a Balenciaga coat or of a Moroccan djellaba in a way that could almost mesmerize the viewer," The New York Times said in an obituary.
"Nothing escaped the edges of his photographs unless he commanded it."
His photographs regularly fetch tens of thousands of dollars under the hammer. An auction scheduled at Christie's in New York on Thursday was to feature some 15 prints by Penn.
Aye Carumba! Marge Simpson poses for "Playboy"
Marge Simpson has done something that her husband Homer might not like but will make son Bart the proudest kid in his school: She's posed for Playboy magazine.After more than a half century featuring women like Marilyn Monroe, Cindy Crawford and the Girls of Hooters on its cover,Playboy has for the first time given the spot to a cartoon character.
And the magazine is giving the star of The Simpsons the star treatment, complete with a data sheet, an interview and a two-page centrefold.
The magazine's editorial director,James Jellinek, won't say exactly how much of Marge will be on show in the November edition that hits newsstands in the US on Friday - or whether she lets that big pile of blue hair down. But,he said:"It's very, very racy."
He also stressed that the mother of three - the youngest a baby, by the way - has a lot to be proud of.
"She is a stunning example of the cartoon form," he said on Friday at the magazine's headquarters in Chicago, appearing both pleased and surprised at the words coming out of his mouth.
For Playboy , which has seen its circulation slip from 3.15 million to 2.60 million since 2006, putting Marge on the cover was designed to attract younger readers to a magazine where the median age of readers is 35, while not alienating older readers.
"We knew that this would really appeal to the 20-something crowd," said Playboy spokeswoman Theresa Hennessey.
The magazine also hopes to turn the November issue into a collectors' item by featuring Marge, sitting on a chair in the shape of the iconic Playboy bunny,on the cover of only the magazines sold in newsstands.
Subscribers get a more traditional model on the cover.
"It's so rare in today's digital age where you have the opportunity to send people to the newsstand to pick something up,"Mr Jellinek said.
Playboy even convinced the 7-Eleven chain to carry the magazine in its 1,200 corporate-owned stores, something the company has only done once before in more than 20 years."We love Marge,"said 7-Eleven spokesman Margaret Chabris.
For those who do collect the magazine - and they're out there - the cover will bring to mind another first for the magazine that occurred in 1971 when a black woman appeared on the cover in exactly the same pose and, like Marge, smiling under an impressive head of hair.
"We knew it was something all of our readers would get a kick out of," said Ms Hennessey.
Mr Jellinek said putting Marge on the cover, while unusual, made perfect sense.For one thing, the cover celebrates the 20th anniversary of the TV show. Further,he said there was an episode in which "Marge bears all", which suggested that she, or at least the people who drew her,would be comfortable with the Playboy treatment.
Perhaps most important, the idea seemed like a good one to the magazine's founder, Hugh Hefner."He's a huge Simpsons fan,' said Mr Jellinek."He's been on The Simpsons ."
And the magazine is giving the star of The Simpsons the star treatment, complete with a data sheet, an interview and a two-page centrefold.
The magazine's editorial director,James Jellinek, won't say exactly how much of Marge will be on show in the November edition that hits newsstands in the US on Friday - or whether she lets that big pile of blue hair down. But,he said:"It's very, very racy."
He also stressed that the mother of three - the youngest a baby, by the way - has a lot to be proud of.
"She is a stunning example of the cartoon form," he said on Friday at the magazine's headquarters in Chicago, appearing both pleased and surprised at the words coming out of his mouth.
For Playboy , which has seen its circulation slip from 3.15 million to 2.60 million since 2006, putting Marge on the cover was designed to attract younger readers to a magazine where the median age of readers is 35, while not alienating older readers.
"We knew that this would really appeal to the 20-something crowd," said Playboy spokeswoman Theresa Hennessey.
The magazine also hopes to turn the November issue into a collectors' item by featuring Marge, sitting on a chair in the shape of the iconic Playboy bunny,on the cover of only the magazines sold in newsstands.
Subscribers get a more traditional model on the cover.
"It's so rare in today's digital age where you have the opportunity to send people to the newsstand to pick something up,"Mr Jellinek said.
Playboy even convinced the 7-Eleven chain to carry the magazine in its 1,200 corporate-owned stores, something the company has only done once before in more than 20 years."We love Marge,"said 7-Eleven spokesman Margaret Chabris.
For those who do collect the magazine - and they're out there - the cover will bring to mind another first for the magazine that occurred in 1971 when a black woman appeared on the cover in exactly the same pose and, like Marge, smiling under an impressive head of hair.
"We knew it was something all of our readers would get a kick out of," said Ms Hennessey.
Mr Jellinek said putting Marge on the cover, while unusual, made perfect sense.For one thing, the cover celebrates the 20th anniversary of the TV show. Further,he said there was an episode in which "Marge bears all", which suggested that she, or at least the people who drew her,would be comfortable with the Playboy treatment.
Perhaps most important, the idea seemed like a good one to the magazine's founder, Hugh Hefner."He's a huge Simpsons fan,' said Mr Jellinek."He's been on The Simpsons ."
Friday, October 9, 2009
Search engines told to pay up
The leaders of two of the world's major news organisations said yesterday that "it is time for search engines and others who use news content for free to pay up."
The comments from Tom Curley of the Associated Press and News Corp's Rupert Murdoch come as the media industry struggles in the Internet age.Many news companies contend that sites such as Google have reaped a fortune from their articles, photos and video without fairly compensating the news organisations producing the material.
"We content creators have been too slow to react to the free exploitation of news by third parties without input or permission," Curley, the AP's chief executive, told a meeting of 300 media leaders in Beijing.
"Crowd-sourcing Web services such as Wikipedia, YouTube and Facebook have become preferred customer destinations for breaking news, displacing websites of traditional news publishers,"Curley said.
"We content creators must quickly and decisively act to take back control of our content."
He said content aggregators, such as search engines and bloggers, were also directing audiences and revenue away from content creators.
"We will no longer tolerate the disconnect between people who devote themselves - at great human and economic cost - to gathering news of public interest and those who profit from it without supporting it," Curley said.
Murdoch also told the opening session of the World Media Summit in Beijing's Great Hall of the People that content providers would be demanding to be paid.
"The aggregators and plagiarists will soon have to pay a price for the coopting of our content. But if we do not take advantage of the current movement toward paid content, it will be the content creators - the people in this hall who will pay the ultimate price and the content kleptomaniacs who triumph,"the News Corp chief executive said.
Curley said in a speech earlier this week in Hong Kong that the AP was considering selling news stories to some online customers exclusively for a certain period, perhaps half an hour.
The AP licenses its stories and photographs to many of the Internet's main hubs, including Google, Yahoo and Microsoft's MSN, and its work is also used by hundreds of websites owned by newspapers and broadcasters. Currently,they all get the material at the same time.
Curley did not clarify how a product that provided some news earlier would work or specify the target customers for the potential new service.
The AP already plans to roll out a system, called a news registry, that will track its content online and detect unlicensed uses in ways that could help boost revenue for the not-for-profit news cooperative, which was founded in 1846,and its member newspapers.
The system will be tested in six weeks by nine newspapers along with a sports statistics provider run jointly by AP and News Corp.
TMurdoch has been a strong advocate of charging for online content. News Corp already owns the newspaper industry's most successful Internet subscription model in the Wall Street Journal ,with more than one million customers who pay for online access.
Murdoch had said in the past he hopes to make online fees pay off for his other publications, which include the New York Post and The Times of London . He hasn't provided specifics about his plans.
Last month, the Wall Street Journal said it planned to start charging as much as $2 per week to read its stories on BlackBerrys, iPhones and other mobile devices.
The comments from Tom Curley of the Associated Press and News Corp's Rupert Murdoch come as the media industry struggles in the Internet age.Many news companies contend that sites such as Google have reaped a fortune from their articles, photos and video without fairly compensating the news organisations producing the material.
"We content creators have been too slow to react to the free exploitation of news by third parties without input or permission," Curley, the AP's chief executive, told a meeting of 300 media leaders in Beijing.
"Crowd-sourcing Web services such as Wikipedia, YouTube and Facebook have become preferred customer destinations for breaking news, displacing websites of traditional news publishers,"Curley said.
"We content creators must quickly and decisively act to take back control of our content."
He said content aggregators, such as search engines and bloggers, were also directing audiences and revenue away from content creators.
"We will no longer tolerate the disconnect between people who devote themselves - at great human and economic cost - to gathering news of public interest and those who profit from it without supporting it," Curley said.
Murdoch also told the opening session of the World Media Summit in Beijing's Great Hall of the People that content providers would be demanding to be paid.
"The aggregators and plagiarists will soon have to pay a price for the coopting of our content. But if we do not take advantage of the current movement toward paid content, it will be the content creators - the people in this hall who will pay the ultimate price and the content kleptomaniacs who triumph,"the News Corp chief executive said.
Curley said in a speech earlier this week in Hong Kong that the AP was considering selling news stories to some online customers exclusively for a certain period, perhaps half an hour.
The AP licenses its stories and photographs to many of the Internet's main hubs, including Google, Yahoo and Microsoft's MSN, and its work is also used by hundreds of websites owned by newspapers and broadcasters. Currently,they all get the material at the same time.
Curley did not clarify how a product that provided some news earlier would work or specify the target customers for the potential new service.
The AP already plans to roll out a system, called a news registry, that will track its content online and detect unlicensed uses in ways that could help boost revenue for the not-for-profit news cooperative, which was founded in 1846,and its member newspapers.
The system will be tested in six weeks by nine newspapers along with a sports statistics provider run jointly by AP and News Corp.
TMurdoch has been a strong advocate of charging for online content. News Corp already owns the newspaper industry's most successful Internet subscription model in the Wall Street Journal ,with more than one million customers who pay for online access.
Murdoch had said in the past he hopes to make online fees pay off for his other publications, which include the New York Post and The Times of London . He hasn't provided specifics about his plans.
Last month, the Wall Street Journal said it planned to start charging as much as $2 per week to read its stories on BlackBerrys, iPhones and other mobile devices.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Democracy activists gain rare court victory
A group of Singaporean pro-democracy activists won a rare legal victory after being acquitted of involvement in an illegal march two years ago,according to court documents obtained yesterday
Public prosecutors had charged the five activists with "participating in a procession without a valid permit" but District Judge John Ng ruled that there was no evidence to support the government's case.
The activists were charged after walking together wearing T-shirts with the words "Democracy Now" and "Freedom Now" in order to circumvent laws against public assemblies of more than four people, part of the strict political controls in Singapore.
Meanwhile, Singapore's highest court yesterday ruled that a soon-to-be-defunct regional magazine and its editor had defamed the country's founder Lee Kuan Yew and his son Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
The three-member Court of Appeal rejected an attempt by the publishers of the Far Eastern Economic Review and its editor, Hugo Restall, to have their conviction by a High Court judge in September 2008 overturned.
Damages to be awarded to the Lees are to be set at a later date. Decisions by the Court of Appeal are final.
Public prosecutors had charged the five activists with "participating in a procession without a valid permit" but District Judge John Ng ruled that there was no evidence to support the government's case.
The activists were charged after walking together wearing T-shirts with the words "Democracy Now" and "Freedom Now" in order to circumvent laws against public assemblies of more than four people, part of the strict political controls in Singapore.
Meanwhile, Singapore's highest court yesterday ruled that a soon-to-be-defunct regional magazine and its editor had defamed the country's founder Lee Kuan Yew and his son Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
The three-member Court of Appeal rejected an attempt by the publishers of the Far Eastern Economic Review and its editor, Hugo Restall, to have their conviction by a High Court judge in September 2008 overturned.
Damages to be awarded to the Lees are to be set at a later date. Decisions by the Court of Appeal are final.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
China looks to create own conglomerates
China plans to spend billions of dollars over the next few years to develop media and entertainment companies that it hopes can compete with global giants like News Corp and Time Warner, and will in the process loosen some of its tight control of these industries.
Guidelines issued last week by China's State Council envisioned the creation of entertainment, news and culture companies with a market orientation and less government backing - in short,companies resembling Bloomberg, Time Warner and Viacom, analysts said.
Along the way, Beijing will allow private and foreign companies to invest in everything from music, film and television to theatre, dance and opera productions - though largely through state-owned companies.
One exception is likely to be news programming, which falls under the control of the Communist Party. China has also been upgrading its state-run news media, with an eye on foreign language publications, wire services and television programs to reach readers and viewers overseas.
News Corp, Viacom and other Western media giants have for years been frustrated by their inability to produce films and television programmes for Chinese consumers; often, they have operated with Chinese joint venture partners and run into delays or political barriers. Sev-eral American companies said they were studying the new Chinese rules and declined to comment further.
Among the first companies to benefit from the new government policy will be Shanghai Media Group, one of the country's biggest state-run news and media conglomerates. In August, the government gave the company approval to reorganise its operations and to issue stock to the public.
SMG, as it is known, has close to $1 billion in revenues and $100 million in profits last year. It also has partnerships with companies like News Corp, Viacom and CNBC, and profitable television units,including a home shopping network,an animation channel, fashion and lifestyle programming, as well as radio,newspaper, magazine and film production units.
Foreign media companies looking for greater access to China's vast market may be disappointed, analysts say of the new guidelines.
"This is not an invitation for stakes by international media companies," says Vivek Couto, director of Media Partners Asia, a Hong Kong-based research firm."But this may be an invitation for private equity and foreign capital to do more."
But other experts warn of regulatory hurdles, because media and entertainment companies report to a variety of agencies, each with their own imperatives.
Guidelines issued last week by China's State Council envisioned the creation of entertainment, news and culture companies with a market orientation and less government backing - in short,companies resembling Bloomberg, Time Warner and Viacom, analysts said.
Along the way, Beijing will allow private and foreign companies to invest in everything from music, film and television to theatre, dance and opera productions - though largely through state-owned companies.
One exception is likely to be news programming, which falls under the control of the Communist Party. China has also been upgrading its state-run news media, with an eye on foreign language publications, wire services and television programs to reach readers and viewers overseas.
News Corp, Viacom and other Western media giants have for years been frustrated by their inability to produce films and television programmes for Chinese consumers; often, they have operated with Chinese joint venture partners and run into delays or political barriers. Sev-eral American companies said they were studying the new Chinese rules and declined to comment further.
Among the first companies to benefit from the new government policy will be Shanghai Media Group, one of the country's biggest state-run news and media conglomerates. In August, the government gave the company approval to reorganise its operations and to issue stock to the public.
SMG, as it is known, has close to $1 billion in revenues and $100 million in profits last year. It also has partnerships with companies like News Corp, Viacom and CNBC, and profitable television units,including a home shopping network,an animation channel, fashion and lifestyle programming, as well as radio,newspaper, magazine and film production units.
Foreign media companies looking for greater access to China's vast market may be disappointed, analysts say of the new guidelines.
"This is not an invitation for stakes by international media companies," says Vivek Couto, director of Media Partners Asia, a Hong Kong-based research firm."But this may be an invitation for private equity and foreign capital to do more."
But other experts warn of regulatory hurdles, because media and entertainment companies report to a variety of agencies, each with their own imperatives.
Change must come from within
"I may do nothing much to reduce global warming but at least I live a simple life that doesn't cause much damage to the environment."SIN JUAJAN A MOTORCYCLE TAXI DRIVER
Climate change negotiation has become more and more complicated and controversial with growing doubts that a practical deal will ever be reached.
What has been going on inside negotiating rooms over recent years seems to have yielded few results; individual behaviour has been seen as the real tool to cool the earth.
There are a lot of stories about "small people" and their efforts - from farmers in remote villages to executives in big cities - adopting low-carbon lifestyles.
Passara Kasemsuwan, managing director of an event organising company,Kengkajkijjakam, said she had changed from a big gas-guzzling car to a smaller one which used less petrol. She also uses environment-friendly gasohol.
This is for both economic and environmental reasons, she said.
Norrinee Ruangnoo, assistant chief reporter of Matichon newspaper, said she took part in her office's energy-saving campaign.Matichon has organised an energy-saving competition in which the department with the lowest monthly electricity use will win a 1,000-baht reward.
"Normally, editorial departments are the biggest electricity users, but with strong cooperation from the staff to adopt power-saving habits, our department won the prize," she said.
Sin Juajan,52, a motorcycle taxi driver in the Klong Toey area, said global warming and climate change involved everybody. He believes deforestation is the biggest cause of global warming.
"There used to be a large, thick forest near my house in Nakhon Ratchasima.It's all gone now," Mr Sin said.
When asked what he had been doing to help stop global warming, Mr Sin said:"I may do nothing much to reduce global warming but at least I live a simple life that doesn't cause much damage to the environment."
Petrol pump attendant Chanarob Benjasat said he knew nothing - and did not care - about the Kyoto Protocol,the Bangkok Climate Change Talks nor the Copenhagen summit.
"But I've heard about global warming," said the 15-year-old native of Buri Ram, who left school and came to work in Bangkok five months ago.
"Global warming means the weather is hotter than before because people cut down trees and forests."
The rising number of cars in the city was another cause of global warming,the teenager said. He served more than 100 cars a day at the petrol station.
"Sometimes I wonder why there are so many cars in Bangkok. Motorists visit the petrol station non-stop," he said.
Chanarob also believed that frequent floods in Narong district which damaged his family's five-rai paddy field almost every year were caused by global warming. But he admitted he had no idea how to help cool the earth.
"I don't think much about global warming. What I worry most about is how to make ends meet," he said.
For UN climate chief Yvo de Boer,using efficient light bulbs and installing solar panels on the roof of his house are an example of individual action to curb global warming. When it comes to transport, Mr de Boer said he walked as much as possible and used a hybrid car.
"There are things that you can do [to cut greenhouse gas emissions]," Mr de Boer said."But to say to people that you can't travel, you can't have a car, or you can't have a television because we suddenly have discovered climate change doesn't seem to be reasonable to me.
"I think we should look much more strongly to clean technology to take us to a solution, rather than just say to people you can't have certain things in life because of climate change."
Climate change negotiation has become more and more complicated and controversial with growing doubts that a practical deal will ever be reached.
What has been going on inside negotiating rooms over recent years seems to have yielded few results; individual behaviour has been seen as the real tool to cool the earth.
There are a lot of stories about "small people" and their efforts - from farmers in remote villages to executives in big cities - adopting low-carbon lifestyles.
Passara Kasemsuwan, managing director of an event organising company,Kengkajkijjakam, said she had changed from a big gas-guzzling car to a smaller one which used less petrol. She also uses environment-friendly gasohol.
This is for both economic and environmental reasons, she said.
Norrinee Ruangnoo, assistant chief reporter of Matichon newspaper, said she took part in her office's energy-saving campaign.Matichon has organised an energy-saving competition in which the department with the lowest monthly electricity use will win a 1,000-baht reward.
"Normally, editorial departments are the biggest electricity users, but with strong cooperation from the staff to adopt power-saving habits, our department won the prize," she said.
Sin Juajan,52, a motorcycle taxi driver in the Klong Toey area, said global warming and climate change involved everybody. He believes deforestation is the biggest cause of global warming.
"There used to be a large, thick forest near my house in Nakhon Ratchasima.It's all gone now," Mr Sin said.
When asked what he had been doing to help stop global warming, Mr Sin said:"I may do nothing much to reduce global warming but at least I live a simple life that doesn't cause much damage to the environment."
Petrol pump attendant Chanarob Benjasat said he knew nothing - and did not care - about the Kyoto Protocol,the Bangkok Climate Change Talks nor the Copenhagen summit.
"But I've heard about global warming," said the 15-year-old native of Buri Ram, who left school and came to work in Bangkok five months ago.
"Global warming means the weather is hotter than before because people cut down trees and forests."
The rising number of cars in the city was another cause of global warming,the teenager said. He served more than 100 cars a day at the petrol station.
"Sometimes I wonder why there are so many cars in Bangkok. Motorists visit the petrol station non-stop," he said.
Chanarob also believed that frequent floods in Narong district which damaged his family's five-rai paddy field almost every year were caused by global warming. But he admitted he had no idea how to help cool the earth.
"I don't think much about global warming. What I worry most about is how to make ends meet," he said.
For UN climate chief Yvo de Boer,using efficient light bulbs and installing solar panels on the roof of his house are an example of individual action to curb global warming. When it comes to transport, Mr de Boer said he walked as much as possible and used a hybrid car.
"There are things that you can do [to cut greenhouse gas emissions]," Mr de Boer said."But to say to people that you can't travel, you can't have a car, or you can't have a television because we suddenly have discovered climate change doesn't seem to be reasonable to me.
"I think we should look much more strongly to clean technology to take us to a solution, rather than just say to people you can't have certain things in life because of climate change."
LET'S TALK ABOUT SEX TALK
Books with the "S" word emblazoned across the cover aren't usually read openly on buses or in Starbucks, but more furtively. As much as we try to hide our curiosity in polite society, however, sex is omnipresent.References to it in advertising, books, magazines, TV programmes, films and everyday conversation intrude on our eyes and ears whether we want them to or not. Yet sex is also a natural part of life, and for visitors in a strange land, or those in a cross-cultural romance, a guide might be helpful to navigate the conflicting and sensationalist messages in advertising and popular culture.
And if you think you're a Khun Phaen (Casanova), you might want to make sure others aren't calling you a ta kae tan-ha klap (lusty old goat). If your heart is cham jai (black and blue), or you feel ngao (lonely),tired of pen soat (being single) and are now ha khoo (looking for a partner) and ready to jeep (flirt), then maybe this book can help.Kaewmala (a pseudonym) lived 10 years in the US, which gives her some perspective for comparison with Western approaches to sexuality. A reader can also get the impression (admitted to in Sex Talk's pages) that the book is a way to exorcise the author's own (and her generation's) sheltered and confused adolescence. There are digs at certain aspects of Thai culture - such as the obsession with fair skin or gender double standards - that resemble rants. And the relative sexual freedom of today's youth is often described with something resembling envy. Organised thematically, the 10 chapters provide a brief explanation of related terms. For newcomers to Thai culture these provide some interesting background information; for those more versed in Thai it is a handy guide to the amorous idiom. It could be interesting for either sex or any orientation, since it's basically just a phrase book, complete with a useful phonetic guide for students of Thai and a bilingual index for quick reference.
There are also some interesting tangents - the odd history lesson, including one on Thailand's sexually liberal past, or on regional diversity in terms, or social change in the Northeast. It is casual about a casual social scene, but refrains from moralising. Despite the claims of the back cover ("Hook up and hang out in the Thai erotic world"), there are no pick-up lines to memorise; a publishing industry that feels sexual sensationalism is the way to greater sales has perhaps cheapened a book that is not nearly as tawdry as it claims to be. As a "guidebook to a sexual culture",Sex Talk does ride the sexual bandwagon. The claims to help you "woo a lover"or "meet your inner sexual animal" are grossly misleading and perhaps unfair to the book,which is better than popular magazines or weekly freesheets with "hook-up" issues, in that it can potentially help you navigate a modern landscape of sexual pitfalls and minefields rather than necessarily add to the confusion. It is meant to be light and accessible and improve inter-cultural communication and understanding on a confusing subject.Within its narrow, linguistic scope it succeeds somewhat.
Does the book drastically alter the sexual landscape? No. Will it give you all the right lines to have men or women swoon over you? Unlikely. Will it help you communicate with and understand a current or future partner? Possibly. Give you some insights into Thai culture? Quite likely. Is it riding a wave of sex-help books? Most probably.
Sex Talk ends abruptly and is hard to read from cover to cover, since essentially it is an annotated collection of listings. If it leaves you a little unsatisfied, though, fret not, because this is the first of a planned series of Sex Talk books. After all, in this age it seems you can never have too much talk about sex.
And if you think you're a Khun Phaen (Casanova), you might want to make sure others aren't calling you a ta kae tan-ha klap (lusty old goat). If your heart is cham jai (black and blue), or you feel ngao (lonely),tired of pen soat (being single) and are now ha khoo (looking for a partner) and ready to jeep (flirt), then maybe this book can help.Kaewmala (a pseudonym) lived 10 years in the US, which gives her some perspective for comparison with Western approaches to sexuality. A reader can also get the impression (admitted to in Sex Talk's pages) that the book is a way to exorcise the author's own (and her generation's) sheltered and confused adolescence. There are digs at certain aspects of Thai culture - such as the obsession with fair skin or gender double standards - that resemble rants. And the relative sexual freedom of today's youth is often described with something resembling envy. Organised thematically, the 10 chapters provide a brief explanation of related terms. For newcomers to Thai culture these provide some interesting background information; for those more versed in Thai it is a handy guide to the amorous idiom. It could be interesting for either sex or any orientation, since it's basically just a phrase book, complete with a useful phonetic guide for students of Thai and a bilingual index for quick reference.
There are also some interesting tangents - the odd history lesson, including one on Thailand's sexually liberal past, or on regional diversity in terms, or social change in the Northeast. It is casual about a casual social scene, but refrains from moralising. Despite the claims of the back cover ("Hook up and hang out in the Thai erotic world"), there are no pick-up lines to memorise; a publishing industry that feels sexual sensationalism is the way to greater sales has perhaps cheapened a book that is not nearly as tawdry as it claims to be. As a "guidebook to a sexual culture",Sex Talk does ride the sexual bandwagon. The claims to help you "woo a lover"or "meet your inner sexual animal" are grossly misleading and perhaps unfair to the book,which is better than popular magazines or weekly freesheets with "hook-up" issues, in that it can potentially help you navigate a modern landscape of sexual pitfalls and minefields rather than necessarily add to the confusion. It is meant to be light and accessible and improve inter-cultural communication and understanding on a confusing subject.Within its narrow, linguistic scope it succeeds somewhat.
Does the book drastically alter the sexual landscape? No. Will it give you all the right lines to have men or women swoon over you? Unlikely. Will it help you communicate with and understand a current or future partner? Possibly. Give you some insights into Thai culture? Quite likely. Is it riding a wave of sex-help books? Most probably.
Sex Talk ends abruptly and is hard to read from cover to cover, since essentially it is an annotated collection of listings. If it leaves you a little unsatisfied, though, fret not, because this is the first of a planned series of Sex Talk books. After all, in this age it seems you can never have too much talk about sex.
British press turns on Brown
Prime Minister Gordon Brown's relations with Britain's notoriously aggressive media hit an all-time low this week, recalling for some the way the press abandoned one of his doomed predecessors.
An angry Mr Brown, facing polls suggesting he has little or no hope of winning elections due by next June, repeatedly showed his exasperation with members of the press at his Labour Party's annual conference.
The tone was set on the first day of the conference in Brighton, when Mr Brown bristled at being asked whether he was on prescription painkillers, or going blind, by a senior BBC presenter.
"I think this is the sort of questioning which is all too often entering the lexicon of British politics," he retorted sharply to Andrew Marr, who was conducting the big set-piece interview as Labour's meeting started.
By the end of the week, Mr Brown pulled his earpiece out and tried to leave while still on camera in another interview,at one point accusing his Sky News questioner of sounding like a "propagandist".
But the worst blow of the conference season was the announcement by the tabloid Sun , Britain's biggest-selling daily,that it was switching its allegiance from Labour to the opposition Conservatives.
Since 1970 the Sun , with a daily circulation of 2.9 million, has always supported the eventual winner of every election. It switched from the Tories to back Tony Blair when he swept to power with his rebranded New Labour in 1997.
The newspaper maintained its support for Labour in the 2001 and 2005 elections,in which Mr Blair led his party to victory.
Its decision to abandon Labour comes two years after Mr Brown succeeded Mr Blair, in what some have seen as a parallel with former Tory premier John Major,who lost the media's support after succeeding Margaret Thatcher in 1990.
"Like John Major before him, he is now a leader at war with those who report him," said Benedict Brogan of the conservative Daily Telegraph . The Sun 's move "marks the final collapse of relations between New Labour and the media", he added.
With elections due by next June, Mr Brown faces a fate similar to that suffered by Mr Major, who became the target of increasingly personal press criticism in the run-up to a crushing defeat in 1997.
The media-savvy Mr Blair, at ease with the cameras and riding high on a huge parliamentary majority, was helped by his high-profile communications chief Alastair Campbell.
A former tabloid journalist himself,Mr Campbell was renowned for his tongue-lashings of reporters he did not like, but above all for his news management including judicious leaks to favoured correspondents.
When Mr Brown took over at 10 Downing Street in June 2007, he promised to replace style with substance, and he impressed many at first with his firm handling of foiled car bomb attacks days after he took office, followed by a footand-mouth scare and floods.
But an atrociously mismanaged leak of plans to hold a snap election, called off and denied at the last minute, suggested that Downing Street had lost its grip on the media machine.
On a personal level, journalists have complained about Mr Brown's lack of charm during interviews, and propensity to totally ignore questions he does not want to answer.
An angry Mr Brown, facing polls suggesting he has little or no hope of winning elections due by next June, repeatedly showed his exasperation with members of the press at his Labour Party's annual conference.
The tone was set on the first day of the conference in Brighton, when Mr Brown bristled at being asked whether he was on prescription painkillers, or going blind, by a senior BBC presenter.
"I think this is the sort of questioning which is all too often entering the lexicon of British politics," he retorted sharply to Andrew Marr, who was conducting the big set-piece interview as Labour's meeting started.
By the end of the week, Mr Brown pulled his earpiece out and tried to leave while still on camera in another interview,at one point accusing his Sky News questioner of sounding like a "propagandist".
But the worst blow of the conference season was the announcement by the tabloid Sun , Britain's biggest-selling daily,that it was switching its allegiance from Labour to the opposition Conservatives.
Since 1970 the Sun , with a daily circulation of 2.9 million, has always supported the eventual winner of every election. It switched from the Tories to back Tony Blair when he swept to power with his rebranded New Labour in 1997.
The newspaper maintained its support for Labour in the 2001 and 2005 elections,in which Mr Blair led his party to victory.
Its decision to abandon Labour comes two years after Mr Brown succeeded Mr Blair, in what some have seen as a parallel with former Tory premier John Major,who lost the media's support after succeeding Margaret Thatcher in 1990.
"Like John Major before him, he is now a leader at war with those who report him," said Benedict Brogan of the conservative Daily Telegraph . The Sun 's move "marks the final collapse of relations between New Labour and the media", he added.
With elections due by next June, Mr Brown faces a fate similar to that suffered by Mr Major, who became the target of increasingly personal press criticism in the run-up to a crushing defeat in 1997.
The media-savvy Mr Blair, at ease with the cameras and riding high on a huge parliamentary majority, was helped by his high-profile communications chief Alastair Campbell.
A former tabloid journalist himself,Mr Campbell was renowned for his tongue-lashings of reporters he did not like, but above all for his news management including judicious leaks to favoured correspondents.
When Mr Brown took over at 10 Downing Street in June 2007, he promised to replace style with substance, and he impressed many at first with his firm handling of foiled car bomb attacks days after he took office, followed by a footand-mouth scare and floods.
But an atrociously mismanaged leak of plans to hold a snap election, called off and denied at the last minute, suggested that Downing Street had lost its grip on the media machine.
On a personal level, journalists have complained about Mr Brown's lack of charm during interviews, and propensity to totally ignore questions he does not want to answer.
Thai master artist paints his picture of regional unity
Anative of southern Thailand, Taveepong Limapornvanich graduated from the Department of Fine Arts and Design at the University of Kansas in the United States.
He has built a reputation over 30 years as a painter,illustrator and designer.
An author and illustrator of many books, his creative works and publications include Drawing Techniques ,The Drawing Bible ,Watercolour Bible Thailand Sketchbook , and Watercolour Paintings of Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn .He has numerous Thai pocket books on drawing and design to his name.
His artistic prowess is reflected in the wide range of techniques and media he uses: oil, watercolour,acrylic, and pencil.
Today, his paintings are prized in numerous private collections around the world.
Among his proudest achievements was his 1999 solo exhibition in Bangkok to commemorate the 72nd birthday of His Majesty The King.
The paintings were auctioned by Christie's in Thailand and the proceeds from the auction were donated to the royal projects of Chai Pattana and the Sai Jai Thai Foundation.
In this book Asean: Portrait of a Community ,Taveepong shares his love with all Asean member countries as depicted in his watercolour rendering of Asean countries through his artistic eyes.
He has built a reputation over 30 years as a painter,illustrator and designer.
An author and illustrator of many books, his creative works and publications include Drawing Techniques ,The Drawing Bible ,Watercolour Bible Thailand Sketchbook , and Watercolour Paintings of Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn .He has numerous Thai pocket books on drawing and design to his name.
His artistic prowess is reflected in the wide range of techniques and media he uses: oil, watercolour,acrylic, and pencil.
Today, his paintings are prized in numerous private collections around the world.
Among his proudest achievements was his 1999 solo exhibition in Bangkok to commemorate the 72nd birthday of His Majesty The King.
The paintings were auctioned by Christie's in Thailand and the proceeds from the auction were donated to the royal projects of Chai Pattana and the Sai Jai Thai Foundation.
In this book Asean: Portrait of a Community ,Taveepong shares his love with all Asean member countries as depicted in his watercolour rendering of Asean countries through his artistic eyes.
Unique gift for Asean leaders
An impressive picture book on the Asean region will be Thailand's parting gift as it vacates the association's chair,writes Thanida Tansubhapol
"L inking people with arts will help them appreciate and be proud of the closeness of one's community," said Vitavas Srivihok, director-general of the Asean Affairs Department at the Foreign Ministry.His words later inspired the birth of an artistic book entitled "Asean: Portrait of a Community" which will be presented as a special gift to the 10 Asean leaders at this year's final Asean gathering this month in Cha-am/Hua Hin.
What makes this book unique is the compilation of sketch drawings of all Asean leaders, as well as the top tourist attractions of the region. The livelihoods of the Asean peoples are portrayed in the natural flow of water colours.
The project took shape in June after an exchange of ideas during a friendly chat between Mr Vitavas and artist Taveepong Limapornvanich.
"The ministry thought it should have a surprise gift for the leaders. I'm sure it will be unlike anything they have previously received from other countries," Mr Vitavas told the Bangkok Post.
But to complete the book was quite a challenge for Mr Taveepong.
"It took me two full months to sketch about 150 pictures from the 10 Asean countries.
"Every day, I spent about 18 hours on average drawing about two pictures. I would start around 3pm to 4pm and finish by about 6am the next day," he said.
In addition to the book,10 large-size smiling portraits of the leaders, which took him more than 10 hours each to finish, will be displayed at the Asean summit.
"Although some of the leaders were not smiling in the originals, I painted them wearing a beaming smile," he said.
He said Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's portrait was the most difficult to draw because he looked different in different poses - sometimes rather bloated,other times thin.
"But the painting of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak came out the best," said Mr Taveepong.
Mr Vitavas is particularly impressed by the pictures of the 10 Asean leaders shaking hands with Asean Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan. To him, they looked so real.
Another major challenge was which distinctive tourist landmarks should be chosen from each member state for the book.
In Indonesia and Thailand, there are simply too many attractions to choose from.
"Since each country was afforded only six pages or 18 prominent tourist sites for entry into the book, I needed to do a lot of thinking and research before finalising the list," said Mr Taveepong.
"I included the places which I thought would make the leaders realise that the Thais did know quite a bit about their neighbouring countries."
"About 40% of the pictures used as samples for the drawings came from my own album, the pictures I took when I travelled to those countries," he said.
Mr Vitavas said:"I am impressed that he was able to capture the diversity of each country and the common culture depicted in the book, such as the
pictures of dancing girls or the type of trishaws running in the streets of Asean countries."
"In the trishaw pictures, all Asean nations have their own style of trishaws, except Brunei, which uses a boat instead," he said.
Mr Taveepong thought Malaysia provided an ideal country for the drawing.
"I studied in Malaysia for two years and that made me feel accustomed to its culture and architecture,especially with what I saw in Penang," he said.
Brunei and Burma are the only two Asean countries Mr Taveepong has never visited.
Unlike the other water-colour drawings in the book,the sacred Shwedagon Pagoda of Burma needed to be done twice.
He said he needed to do this because it was difficult to tell the foreground from the background in the
sample picture. There are also many smaller pagodas around the main one, said Mr Taveepong.
"I have not made the paintings of one country inferior or better than the other countries. If I felt that they needed to look better, I reworked them."
"I believe that when the leaders open this book, they will be surprised at how the Thais came to know about these places [as some are not common tourist spots]," the artist said.
In the past 40 years, no Asean country has done anything like this. It will be evidence for people to remember Thailand as the chair of Asean this year, he said.
Mr Vitavas hopes this artistic masterpiece will help Asean to become better known among its own people and around the world.
"The pillar of socio-culture under the Asean Charter should be improved as it would be a linkage of the people and this book will be a good gateway," he said.
Both Mr Vitavas and Mr Taveepong believe that many countries would be surprised at how resilient Thai people are in the face of ongoing political instability in the country, which is now being expressed through art.
The drawings are now on display for the public at Siam Paragon shopping mall until tomorrow, after which the exhibition will be moved to CentralWorld from October 5-8.
After that, all the pictures would be put on display at the meeting venue at the Dusit Thani Hotel in Chaam/Hua Hin in order to allow all Asean leaders to appreciate their portraits on their way to the meeting room.
"L inking people with arts will help them appreciate and be proud of the closeness of one's community," said Vitavas Srivihok, director-general of the Asean Affairs Department at the Foreign Ministry.His words later inspired the birth of an artistic book entitled "Asean: Portrait of a Community" which will be presented as a special gift to the 10 Asean leaders at this year's final Asean gathering this month in Cha-am/Hua Hin.
What makes this book unique is the compilation of sketch drawings of all Asean leaders, as well as the top tourist attractions of the region. The livelihoods of the Asean peoples are portrayed in the natural flow of water colours.
The project took shape in June after an exchange of ideas during a friendly chat between Mr Vitavas and artist Taveepong Limapornvanich.
"The ministry thought it should have a surprise gift for the leaders. I'm sure it will be unlike anything they have previously received from other countries," Mr Vitavas told the Bangkok Post.
But to complete the book was quite a challenge for Mr Taveepong.
"It took me two full months to sketch about 150 pictures from the 10 Asean countries.
"Every day, I spent about 18 hours on average drawing about two pictures. I would start around 3pm to 4pm and finish by about 6am the next day," he said.
In addition to the book,10 large-size smiling portraits of the leaders, which took him more than 10 hours each to finish, will be displayed at the Asean summit.
"Although some of the leaders were not smiling in the originals, I painted them wearing a beaming smile," he said.
He said Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva's portrait was the most difficult to draw because he looked different in different poses - sometimes rather bloated,other times thin.
"But the painting of Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak came out the best," said Mr Taveepong.
Mr Vitavas is particularly impressed by the pictures of the 10 Asean leaders shaking hands with Asean Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan. To him, they looked so real.
Another major challenge was which distinctive tourist landmarks should be chosen from each member state for the book.
In Indonesia and Thailand, there are simply too many attractions to choose from.
"Since each country was afforded only six pages or 18 prominent tourist sites for entry into the book, I needed to do a lot of thinking and research before finalising the list," said Mr Taveepong.
"I included the places which I thought would make the leaders realise that the Thais did know quite a bit about their neighbouring countries."
"About 40% of the pictures used as samples for the drawings came from my own album, the pictures I took when I travelled to those countries," he said.
Mr Vitavas said:"I am impressed that he was able to capture the diversity of each country and the common culture depicted in the book, such as the
pictures of dancing girls or the type of trishaws running in the streets of Asean countries."
"In the trishaw pictures, all Asean nations have their own style of trishaws, except Brunei, which uses a boat instead," he said.
Mr Taveepong thought Malaysia provided an ideal country for the drawing.
"I studied in Malaysia for two years and that made me feel accustomed to its culture and architecture,especially with what I saw in Penang," he said.
Brunei and Burma are the only two Asean countries Mr Taveepong has never visited.
Unlike the other water-colour drawings in the book,the sacred Shwedagon Pagoda of Burma needed to be done twice.
He said he needed to do this because it was difficult to tell the foreground from the background in the
sample picture. There are also many smaller pagodas around the main one, said Mr Taveepong.
"I have not made the paintings of one country inferior or better than the other countries. If I felt that they needed to look better, I reworked them."
"I believe that when the leaders open this book, they will be surprised at how the Thais came to know about these places [as some are not common tourist spots]," the artist said.
In the past 40 years, no Asean country has done anything like this. It will be evidence for people to remember Thailand as the chair of Asean this year, he said.
Mr Vitavas hopes this artistic masterpiece will help Asean to become better known among its own people and around the world.
"The pillar of socio-culture under the Asean Charter should be improved as it would be a linkage of the people and this book will be a good gateway," he said.
Both Mr Vitavas and Mr Taveepong believe that many countries would be surprised at how resilient Thai people are in the face of ongoing political instability in the country, which is now being expressed through art.
The drawings are now on display for the public at Siam Paragon shopping mall until tomorrow, after which the exhibition will be moved to CentralWorld from October 5-8.
After that, all the pictures would be put on display at the meeting venue at the Dusit Thani Hotel in Chaam/Hua Hin in order to allow all Asean leaders to appreciate their portraits on their way to the meeting room.
Grazia - The Launch Of The Thai Edition By Inspire at The Centara Hotel
Inspire Entertainment lead by CEO, Khun Wiluck Lahtong and Executive Director, Goungkiet Vienravi along with the Mondadori Group from Italy, recently held the official launch of the Thai Edition of the Global Women's Fashion and Lifestyle Magazine at the Centara Hotel. Judging from overflowing turnout from the event alone, Grazia is definitely going to be successful here despite othr magazines going through bad times in the current economy.
Bloomberg teams up with Post
The Washington Post and Bloomberg News are teaming up in a new partnership that will distribute their political and financial coverage to a broader audience.
The venture announced on Thursday includes a news service that fills the void created by the dissolution of a 47-year alliance between the Post and the Los Angeles Times .The two newspapers disclosed their plans to divorce on Wednesday.
Besides distributing about 120 stories per day beginning on Jan 1 to other news organisations, the Post and Bloomberg will share content with each other and co-produce an online business news page on the Post 's website.Financial terms of the arrangement weren't disclosed.
The deal will help the Post compensate for a staff that has been shrinking in recent years. Like large newspapers across the United States, the Post has been shedding employees because of a steep drop in advertising sales. The Post 's ad revenue from its print edition plunged 27% in the first half of this year, leaving the newspaper with $57 million less to pay its expenses.
New York-based Bloomberg hasn't been as hard hit because it doesn't rely as much on advertising. It caters to investors, bankers and other financial services employees who pay to receive a variety of business coverage and data through Bloomberg terminals. Some of the Post 's coverage will now be sent to those terminals.
The Post will be able to draw on Bloomberg's more than 1,500 reporters and editors to supplement its staff coverage online and in print.
"This is a formidable collaboration,"said Marcus Brauchli, executive editor of the Washington Post ."It brings together the Post 's vast expertise on politics and policy news in Washington with Bloomberg's highly regarded global financial, economic and political news franchise."
The Washington Post is the fifth-largest US newspaper with a weekday circulation of 665,000. Bloomberg News is owned by Bloomberg LP, a private company controlled by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
The venture announced on Thursday includes a news service that fills the void created by the dissolution of a 47-year alliance between the Post and the Los Angeles Times .The two newspapers disclosed their plans to divorce on Wednesday.
Besides distributing about 120 stories per day beginning on Jan 1 to other news organisations, the Post and Bloomberg will share content with each other and co-produce an online business news page on the Post 's website.Financial terms of the arrangement weren't disclosed.
The deal will help the Post compensate for a staff that has been shrinking in recent years. Like large newspapers across the United States, the Post has been shedding employees because of a steep drop in advertising sales. The Post 's ad revenue from its print edition plunged 27% in the first half of this year, leaving the newspaper with $57 million less to pay its expenses.
New York-based Bloomberg hasn't been as hard hit because it doesn't rely as much on advertising. It caters to investors, bankers and other financial services employees who pay to receive a variety of business coverage and data through Bloomberg terminals. Some of the Post 's coverage will now be sent to those terminals.
The Post will be able to draw on Bloomberg's more than 1,500 reporters and editors to supplement its staff coverage online and in print.
"This is a formidable collaboration,"said Marcus Brauchli, executive editor of the Washington Post ."It brings together the Post 's vast expertise on politics and policy news in Washington with Bloomberg's highly regarded global financial, economic and political news franchise."
The Washington Post is the fifth-largest US newspaper with a weekday circulation of 665,000. Bloomberg News is owned by Bloomberg LP, a private company controlled by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
THIN GRUEL FOR THEISTS
Recent years have given us several books on the history of Western religion:Karen Armstrong's "A History of God", Jack Miles's "God: A B3iography" and now Robert Wright's "The Evolution of God".Armstrong is former nun,Miles a former priest,and it is evident they are trying to salvage something from the wreckage of religous belief inflicted by the ongoing onslaught of scientific materialism.
Wright is a self-proclaimed materialist who is trying to understand religion as a product of political and economic forces,but he too seems interested in salvaging something from the wreckage.He portrays the Habrew god Yahweh as originally a storm deity,one god among many in the Middle East,who took on the characteristics of some of his competitors and eventually sought to displace them all.His evolution was conditioned by the political dynamies of the region,in which the confederated tribes of Israel were a minor player and the predominant powers were Egypt,Assyria,Babylonia,and later Persia.
Among other theories,Wright speculates that the Israelites were never slaves in Rgypt.They were actually Canaanite hill tribes who clashed with their coastal and plains-dwelling cousins.Goodbye to Moses,the exodus from Egypt,the Ten Commandments and the forty years wandering in the wilderness! One wonders how this stupendous epic managed to emerge if the Israelited were living in the hills of Canaan all the while.Cecil B DeMille would surely be upset.
Wright theorises that Jesus was a chauvinist whose doctrine of love was limited to the Jews,as evidenced by his frequent remarks disparaging the Gentiles (pagans).Anecdotes showing his regard for Gentiles,such a his healing of the centurion's servant,and the parable of the Good Samaritan,were added later.It was the apostle Paul who idealised Jasus and boradened his doctrine of love to include all humankind.Paul's motivation was not entirely altruistic.He wanted to convert the pagan world to Christianity,and he could hardly have done that if Jesus' doctrine of love had remanined limited to the Jews.
Wright sees in Muhammad a synthesis of Moses and the idealised Jesus.Muhamad is like Moses because he led his people form a place of oppression (Mecca) to a place of freedom(Medina),and because he was political leader and lawgiver.He is like the idealised Jesus because he taught love and brotherhood.
Wright downplays the fequent imprecations against infidels in the Qur'an.He notes that you can cherry-pick the Qur'an to prove a variety of viewpoints,but maintains that the weight of Qur'anic verses suggest that it is for God to punish infidels in the next life and for Muslims to practice forbearance in this one.Somebody should tell this to our contemporary Islamic terrorists.
Wright's central thesis is that the idea of God has evolved from multiple primitive,localised,often savage supernatural powers, into a sighle invisible,universal overlord with a deep concern for morality.Insofar as that belief civilises us and makes us moral,it takes on a creative reality of its own.The impulse to morality that evolves from it(Wright calls it maral order,moral direction,even moral truth) is the closest thing we have to God.
Theists will find this pretty thin gruel.The impulse to morality is an admirable thing,but pales beside the vigour of the feisty,interventionist,sometimes-anthropomorphie god depicted in the Abrahamic religions.Theists want a god with personality,a god they can worship,love and pray to.You can't pray to an impulse.
But maybe theists need to grow up.A morality that springs from within is obviously superior to amorality imposed from without.You can't worshi it,but who ever claimed that the sole object of religion is to have something to worship? A higher object would be an inner transformation for the better,regardless of external realities.Wright seems to be saying that if there is anything,how ever subtle and beyond our range of knowing,that impels such transformation,although we may not call it God,it's the closest thing to Gd we've got.
Wright is a self-proclaimed materialist who is trying to understand religion as a product of political and economic forces,but he too seems interested in salvaging something from the wreckage.He portrays the Habrew god Yahweh as originally a storm deity,one god among many in the Middle East,who took on the characteristics of some of his competitors and eventually sought to displace them all.His evolution was conditioned by the political dynamies of the region,in which the confederated tribes of Israel were a minor player and the predominant powers were Egypt,Assyria,Babylonia,and later Persia.
Among other theories,Wright speculates that the Israelites were never slaves in Rgypt.They were actually Canaanite hill tribes who clashed with their coastal and plains-dwelling cousins.Goodbye to Moses,the exodus from Egypt,the Ten Commandments and the forty years wandering in the wilderness! One wonders how this stupendous epic managed to emerge if the Israelited were living in the hills of Canaan all the while.Cecil B DeMille would surely be upset.
Wright theorises that Jesus was a chauvinist whose doctrine of love was limited to the Jews,as evidenced by his frequent remarks disparaging the Gentiles (pagans).Anecdotes showing his regard for Gentiles,such a his healing of the centurion's servant,and the parable of the Good Samaritan,were added later.It was the apostle Paul who idealised Jasus and boradened his doctrine of love to include all humankind.Paul's motivation was not entirely altruistic.He wanted to convert the pagan world to Christianity,and he could hardly have done that if Jesus' doctrine of love had remanined limited to the Jews.
Wright sees in Muhammad a synthesis of Moses and the idealised Jesus.Muhamad is like Moses because he led his people form a place of oppression (Mecca) to a place of freedom(Medina),and because he was political leader and lawgiver.He is like the idealised Jesus because he taught love and brotherhood.
Wright downplays the fequent imprecations against infidels in the Qur'an.He notes that you can cherry-pick the Qur'an to prove a variety of viewpoints,but maintains that the weight of Qur'anic verses suggest that it is for God to punish infidels in the next life and for Muslims to practice forbearance in this one.Somebody should tell this to our contemporary Islamic terrorists.
Wright's central thesis is that the idea of God has evolved from multiple primitive,localised,often savage supernatural powers, into a sighle invisible,universal overlord with a deep concern for morality.Insofar as that belief civilises us and makes us moral,it takes on a creative reality of its own.The impulse to morality that evolves from it(Wright calls it maral order,moral direction,even moral truth) is the closest thing we have to God.
Theists will find this pretty thin gruel.The impulse to morality is an admirable thing,but pales beside the vigour of the feisty,interventionist,sometimes-anthropomorphie god depicted in the Abrahamic religions.Theists want a god with personality,a god they can worship,love and pray to.You can't pray to an impulse.
But maybe theists need to grow up.A morality that springs from within is obviously superior to amorality imposed from without.You can't worshi it,but who ever claimed that the sole object of religion is to have something to worship? A higher object would be an inner transformation for the better,regardless of external realities.Wright seems to be saying that if there is anything,how ever subtle and beyond our range of knowing,that impels such transformation,although we may not call it God,it's the closest thing to Gd we've got.
Friday, October 2, 2009
THE SULTAN AND THE MERMAID QUEEN Paul Spencer Sochaczewski
The Sultan and the Mermaid Queen is a compendium of articles and essays on Asia written by Bangkok resident Paul Spencer Sochaczewski. Encompassing several decades of travel throughout the continent, they originally appeared in publications such as the International Herald Tribune ,Wall Street Journal CNN Traveller ,Geographical ,Travel and Leisure Golf and Destinasian .Sochaczewski has a knack for finding oddball characters and offbeat stories on his journeys. Within these pages we meet a homeless Hawaiian who claims to be the last real emperor of China, the last elephant hunter of Vietnam, and the Sultan of Yogyakarta who lends his name to the book's title and who professes his love for a mermaid queen.
We also learn how Burma's generals are using white elephants to justify their hold on power and ponder the disappearance of a modern day Swiss Robin Hood who disppapeared in the Borneo jungle while trying to stand up for the rights of Penan tribesmen, among many other interesting tales.
The author's enthusiasm for Asia is apparent throughout, as are his interests in conservation and golf. He combines all three with an article written in Bangkok which considers the ecological impact of Asia's obsession with a game that requires more land than some Balkan states.
As a non-tree hugger I found it a bit tiring trying to read all the eco-centric articles in one sitting, likewise reading about golf, which gets me about as excited as sitting at the lights at Asok on a Friday evening. In a thunderstorm. However,this is not a book to be read all at once, much less so in lateral order from cover to cover.
Dipping into TSATMQ is like eating squid on a stick with green chilli sauce. If you use too much then it becomes a bit overwhelming and could even make your eyes water, but applied sparingly it's a delectable and invigorating
We also learn how Burma's generals are using white elephants to justify their hold on power and ponder the disappearance of a modern day Swiss Robin Hood who disppapeared in the Borneo jungle while trying to stand up for the rights of Penan tribesmen, among many other interesting tales.
The author's enthusiasm for Asia is apparent throughout, as are his interests in conservation and golf. He combines all three with an article written in Bangkok which considers the ecological impact of Asia's obsession with a game that requires more land than some Balkan states.
As a non-tree hugger I found it a bit tiring trying to read all the eco-centric articles in one sitting, likewise reading about golf, which gets me about as excited as sitting at the lights at Asok on a Friday evening. In a thunderstorm. However,this is not a book to be read all at once, much less so in lateral order from cover to cover.
Dipping into TSATMQ is like eating squid on a stick with green chilli sauce. If you use too much then it becomes a bit overwhelming and could even make your eyes water, but applied sparingly it's a delectable and invigorating
A love-hate relationship with food
When Frank Bruni stepped on the scene as the chief restaurant critic for The New York Times more than five years ago,many industry insiders and observers thought the choice was odd.
Bruni had no previous experience reviewing restaurants. He hadn't sweated long hours behind a hot range in a well-regarded kitchen learning his craft. He knew how to shape sentences but what did he know about simmering sauces?
But even odder was Bruni's lovehate relationship with food - something he now acknowledges in his new memoir,Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater .The revelation isn't exactly shocking but it is unusual. Bruni, the man who had volunteered to eat out six nights a week, had obsessed about his weight for most of his life. He had battled bulimia briefly, toyed with laxatives and torpedoed many a diet - all the trimmings for his third book.
"I remember thinking if I look up after a couple of years and I am right,and I have figured out a better way to manage my relationship with food,it's probably a pretty interesting narrative how I got to this point," Bruni says about the moment he decided to take the job.
If waist size is an indicator of success then Bruni, with his close-cropped hair and athletic build, has been wildly successful curbing his prodigious appetite. After ballooning to around 275 pounds and sporting 42-inch pants while covering a presidential campaign in 2000, Bruni can now take a moment to brag.
He wears size 34 jeans and doesn't look round anymore - despite eating his way through approximately 700 restaurants in New York alone during his stint as critic that came officially to an end last month.
"I like eating, and I prefer eating in great volume to eating in minor volume," Bruni,44, said in an interview at a wine bar on Manhattan's Upper West Side near his home."No question.Having been through everything I describe in the book, I am fully aware and I struggle to remain conscious of the consequences."
The consequences have plagued Bruni throughout his life but they came to a head when he decided in April 2004 to leave his post as Rome correspondent and tackle restaurant reviewing in New York, perhaps the most important dining city in the world and one filled with know-it-all foodies.
For Bruni, danger loomed. A sea of calories awaited him. He took the plunge - one that has local restaurateurs now scratching their heads since learning Bruni's anguish over food.
"It's like an alcoholic becoming a winemaker," says John Fraser, whose New York restaurant Dovetail faired exceptionally well under Bruni's withering gaze, earning three stars.
Bruni knew the task ahead of him was great. He adjusted and learned on the job. He "ate more widely and in a much more inquisitive and thoughtful manner." He developed a "frame of reference" that was "extremely broad and unusual."
He not only wrote about places in New York but he also ventured across America and Europe, alerting readers to gems such as Alinea in Chicago.Bruni could at times be snarky in his reviews but he was mostly right when he decided to bring out the knives,according to chefs.
Sometimes, restaurants caught him;sometimes they did not. A well-worn picture floating around of a heftier Bruni aided his cause to slip into restaurants unnoticed.
"We had the fat picture. You would never guess that's the same person,"Fraser said about Bruni's most current photograph posted on the food blog Eater.com and the one found inside the cover of his book.
His style of writing attracted many followers. Not everybody loved him but they definitely talked about him.As Bruni evolved, people noticed, chatting about him at cocktail parties, said Jennifer Baum, an influential restaurant publicist who has never met Bruni but had about a dozen of her restaurants reviewed by him.
"It stepped beyond the walls of the industry," Baum said, referring to his reviews. Baum, like other food publicists, kept a wary eye on Bruni,who once slapped around one of her celebrity chef clients, Bobby Flay, taking a star away from Mesa Grill in Manhattan. Baum wouldn't comment about her client's reaction to Bruni's takedown, but she said he was fair and honest.
"There are some restaurants that opened where people didn't pay attention and those restaurants should be shouted out," she said."He went into the venerable restaurants and made sure they were paying attention."
And the weight? Not only did Bruni beat back the calories through rigorous exercise and moderation, he also beat back the doubters in a city filled with them. Bruni, according to some of the toughest critics in town, prevailed.
"When he started out, Frank famously knew almost nothing about restaurant criticism, and it showed,"GQmagazine food critic Alan Richman said."He was saved by his writing which is exuberant and charming, by his indefatigable work ethic and by his instinctive ability to write brilliant criticisms of restaurants that he either hated or loved. I'm not sure if any restaurant critic has been better at praise."
Richman, who once eviscerated one of the most famous chefs alive, JeanGeorges Vongerichten, in a scathing article for his magazine, said it's too bad Bruni is giving up his reign as most feared critic in New York.
"What I regret about him leaving now is that he finally has that skill,something that comes with scrutinising thousands of plates of food," Richman said."He's at his peak."
Bruni isn't sorry. He can finally exhale after crafting about 270 reviews - visiting some spots more than once - for the newspaper that could turn a restaurant into a massive hit or major flop. He decided to end his run as critic because his "energy would fade or was fading."
Bruni says his old gig wasn't just about eating. It was also about coordinating the meals - all the time. He always dictated the schedule, calling himself a "bully."
Bruni had no previous experience reviewing restaurants. He hadn't sweated long hours behind a hot range in a well-regarded kitchen learning his craft. He knew how to shape sentences but what did he know about simmering sauces?
But even odder was Bruni's lovehate relationship with food - something he now acknowledges in his new memoir,Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater .The revelation isn't exactly shocking but it is unusual. Bruni, the man who had volunteered to eat out six nights a week, had obsessed about his weight for most of his life. He had battled bulimia briefly, toyed with laxatives and torpedoed many a diet - all the trimmings for his third book.
"I remember thinking if I look up after a couple of years and I am right,and I have figured out a better way to manage my relationship with food,it's probably a pretty interesting narrative how I got to this point," Bruni says about the moment he decided to take the job.
If waist size is an indicator of success then Bruni, with his close-cropped hair and athletic build, has been wildly successful curbing his prodigious appetite. After ballooning to around 275 pounds and sporting 42-inch pants while covering a presidential campaign in 2000, Bruni can now take a moment to brag.
He wears size 34 jeans and doesn't look round anymore - despite eating his way through approximately 700 restaurants in New York alone during his stint as critic that came officially to an end last month.
"I like eating, and I prefer eating in great volume to eating in minor volume," Bruni,44, said in an interview at a wine bar on Manhattan's Upper West Side near his home."No question.Having been through everything I describe in the book, I am fully aware and I struggle to remain conscious of the consequences."
The consequences have plagued Bruni throughout his life but they came to a head when he decided in April 2004 to leave his post as Rome correspondent and tackle restaurant reviewing in New York, perhaps the most important dining city in the world and one filled with know-it-all foodies.
For Bruni, danger loomed. A sea of calories awaited him. He took the plunge - one that has local restaurateurs now scratching their heads since learning Bruni's anguish over food.
"It's like an alcoholic becoming a winemaker," says John Fraser, whose New York restaurant Dovetail faired exceptionally well under Bruni's withering gaze, earning three stars.
Bruni knew the task ahead of him was great. He adjusted and learned on the job. He "ate more widely and in a much more inquisitive and thoughtful manner." He developed a "frame of reference" that was "extremely broad and unusual."
He not only wrote about places in New York but he also ventured across America and Europe, alerting readers to gems such as Alinea in Chicago.Bruni could at times be snarky in his reviews but he was mostly right when he decided to bring out the knives,according to chefs.
Sometimes, restaurants caught him;sometimes they did not. A well-worn picture floating around of a heftier Bruni aided his cause to slip into restaurants unnoticed.
"We had the fat picture. You would never guess that's the same person,"Fraser said about Bruni's most current photograph posted on the food blog Eater.com and the one found inside the cover of his book.
His style of writing attracted many followers. Not everybody loved him but they definitely talked about him.As Bruni evolved, people noticed, chatting about him at cocktail parties, said Jennifer Baum, an influential restaurant publicist who has never met Bruni but had about a dozen of her restaurants reviewed by him.
"It stepped beyond the walls of the industry," Baum said, referring to his reviews. Baum, like other food publicists, kept a wary eye on Bruni,who once slapped around one of her celebrity chef clients, Bobby Flay, taking a star away from Mesa Grill in Manhattan. Baum wouldn't comment about her client's reaction to Bruni's takedown, but she said he was fair and honest.
"There are some restaurants that opened where people didn't pay attention and those restaurants should be shouted out," she said."He went into the venerable restaurants and made sure they were paying attention."
And the weight? Not only did Bruni beat back the calories through rigorous exercise and moderation, he also beat back the doubters in a city filled with them. Bruni, according to some of the toughest critics in town, prevailed.
"When he started out, Frank famously knew almost nothing about restaurant criticism, and it showed,"GQmagazine food critic Alan Richman said."He was saved by his writing which is exuberant and charming, by his indefatigable work ethic and by his instinctive ability to write brilliant criticisms of restaurants that he either hated or loved. I'm not sure if any restaurant critic has been better at praise."
Richman, who once eviscerated one of the most famous chefs alive, JeanGeorges Vongerichten, in a scathing article for his magazine, said it's too bad Bruni is giving up his reign as most feared critic in New York.
"What I regret about him leaving now is that he finally has that skill,something that comes with scrutinising thousands of plates of food," Richman said."He's at his peak."
Bruni isn't sorry. He can finally exhale after crafting about 270 reviews - visiting some spots more than once - for the newspaper that could turn a restaurant into a massive hit or major flop. He decided to end his run as critic because his "energy would fade or was fading."
Bruni says his old gig wasn't just about eating. It was also about coordinating the meals - all the time. He always dictated the schedule, calling himself a "bully."
Top tabloid switches support from Labour
Britain's topselling daily newspaper dealt a blow to Prime Minister Gordon Brown's efforts to win a general election, declaring yesterday it had switched its support to the opposition Conservatives.
The Sun , part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp media empire, delivered a damning thumbs-down the day after Mr Brown's keynote speech to his ruling Labour Party conference.
"After 12 long years in power, this government has lost its way," the Sun said in a front-page article, featuring a picture of Mr Brown and the headline "Labour's lost it".
The Sun boasts a circulation of more than 3 million and a record of backing winners in elections. It switched its support to Labour before Tony Blair led the party to the first of three successive election victories in 1997.
Mr Brown replaced Mr Blair two years ago but faces a fight for political survival.He must call an election by next June and the centre-right Conservatives are ahead by 15 points or more in polls.
"The British people will decide the election, not a newspaper. I think people really want newspapers to report news and expect them to do so," Mr Brown said.
Ground down by recession and angered by a scandal over lawmakers'expenses, Britons appear ready to embrace the Conservatives.
"What this is signalling is that they [the Sun ] think their readers have turned,just as in 1996 when they switched support to Blair, a similar time out from the election," Ivor Gaber, professor of political campaigning and reporting at London's City University, said.
"They weren't saying 'we suddenly think New Labour is good', they were saying 'we know where our readers are at', and no newspaper likes to be behind its readers."
The Sun , part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp media empire, delivered a damning thumbs-down the day after Mr Brown's keynote speech to his ruling Labour Party conference.
"After 12 long years in power, this government has lost its way," the Sun said in a front-page article, featuring a picture of Mr Brown and the headline "Labour's lost it".
The Sun boasts a circulation of more than 3 million and a record of backing winners in elections. It switched its support to Labour before Tony Blair led the party to the first of three successive election victories in 1997.
Mr Brown replaced Mr Blair two years ago but faces a fight for political survival.He must call an election by next June and the centre-right Conservatives are ahead by 15 points or more in polls.
"The British people will decide the election, not a newspaper. I think people really want newspapers to report news and expect them to do so," Mr Brown said.
Ground down by recession and angered by a scandal over lawmakers'expenses, Britons appear ready to embrace the Conservatives.
"What this is signalling is that they [the Sun ] think their readers have turned,just as in 1996 when they switched support to Blair, a similar time out from the election," Ivor Gaber, professor of political campaigning and reporting at London's City University, said.
"They weren't saying 'we suddenly think New Labour is good', they were saying 'we know where our readers are at', and no newspaper likes to be behind its readers."
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