Posts by Simon Grigg
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It changes things in that Pheu Thai likely has a mandate of sorts after Feb. 23rd when the elections’ first results are in. A few other things:
1) The armed forces heads all voted, which is taken as support for the democratic process, i.e. no coup.
2) Suthep tonight announced a major pullback of 3 of his 6 his protest sites, from Lat Prao, Victory Monument (my favourite name in BKK – in 1942 a general lost a war against Cambodia, came back and said we won, and they built a plinth) and Chaeng Wattana, the massive and kinda cool government site in the north of Bangkok. I watched the speech and he was cackling semi-coherently like a man lost.
3) 89% of Thailand voted without incident and it’s widely seen as a success for the incumbents. See image (green cool, orange some problems, brown no vote – byelections next week).I spend the day out and about. In most of the city it was a gorgeous quiet Sunday with people out, voting and spending time with their families. Suthep had called for citywide road paralysis but there was no uptake at all. On the Rama 1 strip (the central shopping district) there was a massed gathering which they called a protest picnic, and it was really busy but mostly just people hanging out in a semi-carnival sort of atmosphere. The malls were packed and there was a massive streetmarket. Fun.
This will go on for a while but Suthep has had the wind taken from his sails, not least by the gunfight last night where his thugs in the far north of the city were captured by various media including the BBC, attacking folks who wanted to vote with semi-automatic weaponry! The whole country was severely shaken and it was lucky nobody was badly hurt. Awful stuff.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Starting Early, in reply to Robyn Gallagher,
Like, it’s not fair she she hasn’t sweated it out doing a tour of grimy pubs like _proper_ rock bands do.
Yeah - it's so fucking unfair, eh? She spend a few short years honing some killer songwriting chops and had natural talent that - with others - look her to places those whinging naysayers will never reach no matter how many shitty stages they play their dues on.
I've been in a couple of similar conversations too, with one person telling me that we'll find out what she's really made of when the next album turkeys. I replied that we've already found that out - 9 weeks at number one will exist forever even if she never releases another note. Why do people need to do this?
Any word BTW on Bruce Russell’s plans to release a live collection of The Stones alongside studio-captured material (as per the ‘last word’ in the Stones Audioculture profile)?
I understand it's 'progressing' - take that to mean what you wish.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Starting Early, in reply to Robyn Gallagher,
It got me thinking. In the time before Lorde, the expected path a NZ artist would take was touring NZ, then moving to Australia, then pushing to break the UK or America
I think the mould was broken by the early Flying Nun bands - for example The Clean became global champions of the alt scene without following that route. And lest we forget Pauly Fuemana topped the US charts while he was based in Grey's Avenue.
Talking of The Clean - part 2 of their story, all scrutinized and fact checked by David Kilgour, the band's unofficial historian, has just gone live today on AudioCulture, in time for tonight's gig.
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I have no idea why that went up sideways. Maybe it's an iOS statement on Thailand :)
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Interesting Sofie and a little one eyed I’d suggest. Here’s another eye. This was taken in Asoke about 20 minutes ago and it’s Suthep roaring to the crowd. The thing is, a month ago the crowd would’ve been large. Tonight I stood in the midst of no more than 1500 people of whom a third or so were tourists. The common comment here is how little things have been disrupted. The article talks of passport problems – the office moved long ago and people are saying there are no issues.
I thought this was one of the more interesting external articles I’ve read of late – it’s a war of attrition out there.
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Speaker: Colour coding Jonestown, in reply to Chris Waugh,
Sofie, it’s a Canon Powershot G1X – a super-snappy that I like. I’ve been a fan of the G line for a while.
Winston – I’d not really thought about that but you could almost say that :) He’s the “Man of The People” but only in his own mind and that of his supporters.
But I was also thinking that, in the unlikely event of another coup, ties with China give the Thai military a fallback option if the US imposes sanctions.
A couple of years back the US sent a very high level delegation to Bangkok, which included members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to talk ties (they’re after a U2 base near Pattaya on the old Vietnam War era B-52 base, now a Thai Navy base – Thailand says no). Fully aware they were coming, and without notice, the whole Thai top military strata debunked to Beijing for ‘talks’ which left the US generals talking to second level officers. The reality is China remains far more important to Thailand (and most of SEA) than the US despite western media and political dis-information about regional unease over the country. Mostly that’s US wishful thinking.
The Thai and Chinese navies have joint patrols on the Mekong now I think.
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Speaker: Colour coding Jonestown, in reply to Chris Waugh,
The Chinese?! Now that does thicken the plot somewhat. C
All complicated by the South China Sea of course, but the Thai military have been quite even balancing both the US and China.
Then there are all the condos and beach houses that are Chinese owned ... it wouldn't do to see a property crash here :)
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Thanks everyone.
Chris -
1. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say slim-ish. Last time the world turned on the Thai military and they lost contracts and contacts. They're also still reeling from the aftermath of 2010. That said, if the violence spins out of control, who knows. The Thai military have ties to both the US and Chinese and I'd imagine behind the scenes all sorts of stuff is going on to ensure they don't.
Plus the head military guy is due to retire in 5 months - I'm not sure he wants to be running a country.
2. The succession is the elephant in the room that nobody talks about for good reason (lèse majesté laws prevent me from saying too much too). Behind all this there are massive power games going on and in a way the broad future of Thailand is being mapped out. This really is the old world versus the new - it's just a shame that Thaksin is such a bloody rogue and that rather gets in the middle of this fight for the future. Sadly, although the mob obsesses about bought votes and such, it's hard to get past the notion that they're being played as much as anyone in Thailand is.
3. The last few days, with the violent blocking of voting booths and the roaming thugs seem to have severely reduced Suthep's credibility, and last night Asoke junction was very, very quiet for the normal rallying speeches. Before that he was losing at least visible support (for similar reasons) as the crowds shrank. There's an obvious distancing of people from him and his words, plus people just have lives to live. That said, he has a hardcore which is increasingly so and it's difficult to see them evaporating without tough measures. This will get messy I think.
A new leader? No, not yet, but it's clear many of the younger generation have had enough of this bullshit, from both sides. But like the US, finding a way through the establishment is nigh on impossible.
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Hard News: Holiday Music: Pop TV Lives, in reply to Russell Brown,
Indeed. And every rip from the album that some kid chucks up on YouTube with a still photo. The music business has changed quite a lot
The same has also brought vast amounts of music back from the lost. So much 50s and 60s NZ music released by small labels survives only because of people doing that to their old 45s and album tracks.
Also from Rockpalast is this stonking live performance from Elvis Costello with his Attractions from 1978 - at their early This Years Model prime.
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Fantastic news Russell, really pleased for you - and us.
