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Bookazine Book Review: Thai Style

by Lang Reid

This week’s review is of a coffee table hard backed publication originally published in 1988, but revised and reprinted many times, and now expanded and reprinted again last year. Thai Style (ISBN 974-8303-26-8) is another of those collaborative works produced by William Warren, an American born writer of exceptional works of historical influence and Luca Invernizzi Tettoni, an award-winning photographer with an affinity for Asian art.

The book begins with some pre-history of the S.E. Asia region and then into the more recent Thai history. It is interesting to know that the use of durable materials such as stone or brick was reserved for religious buildings only, and this is why the wooden dwellings of Sukhothai’s palaces and houses have all disappeared. The architectural influences are covered and then the Ayutthaya and Bangkok styles which evolved later, including European housing and offices.

Warren admits to difficulties when trying to define Thai style. “Recognition of Thai style is easier than analysis; its varied components tend to be elusive, like the hot, sweet and sour flavours of the country’s food, each making its presence felt but in ways so subtle that it is difficult to say where one stops and another begins.”

Warren explains the different pottery forms, utensils, furniture and furnishings. Each item is illustrated by pin-sharp photographs in Tettoni’s inimitable photographic approach.

In the chapter on traditions, mention is made of the original way of building by first placing the ‘saaw eg’ (the primary post) and then the ‘saaw khwan’ (the spiritual post) and then finally building a ‘spirit house’. It is again of interest that important public buildings still will have a ceremony to bless the ‘saaw eg’.

Traditional Thai architectural style is being revived by many people and this is where Tettoni’s photography again serves to demonstrate the old and the new, a rebirth. Some of the houses, many of which have been built fairly recently in Bangkok, are featured, with the rich use of wood playing an important part in the warm visuals. Not only are there overviews of the buildings, but also the small individual decorations and motifs are shown.

Foreign influences on Thai style are shown and I had not realised that originally foreigners could not build on dry land and had to build floating houses instead, so the ban on foreigners “owning” land is nothing new.

The review copy was made available by Bookazine, 1st floor Royal Garden Plaza and costs a hefty 1,695 baht. (As an aside, it amazes me that retailers still persist with the $3.99 mentality, which fools nobody these days, surely. It is $4.00 “dishonestly” disguised as $3.00. Likewise, B. 1,695 is B. 1,700 or are they expecting the 5 baht as a tip? Gripe over.) Both William Warren and Luca Invernizzi Tettoni are the heavyweights in their field, and this book is a heavyweight item. The writing and explanations are superb and the photography exemplary.

This is the ideal book to send to your friends overseas (but post early and send by sea mail). I loved this book and despite the price I need to have it.

Movie Review: Reign of Fire

By Poppy

A 12-year-old London boy, Quinn visits his mother at a construction site and awakens a beast only accredited to myth and legend. Twenty years later, the planet has been essentially destroyed by hundreds of fire-breathing dragons. The dragons are hungry due to eating most of their human food supply, ignoring the fact that all predator species must pace themselves eating their prey or face certain extinction. The boy, Quinn (Christian Bale, “American Psycho”), now a man, is helping a community survive the scorched earth within the ruins of a dilapidated castle eking out an existence growing tomatoes and trying to kill the flying, maundering dragons with worn weapons.

Then American dragon slayer Denton Van Zan (Mathew McConaughey) arrives bringing his helicopter pilot Alex (Izabella Scorupco) and crew of dragon slayers, known as the 17-second Archangels. Van Zan has a shaved head, is covered with tattoos, chews on a cigar and is extremely macho. He’s a zealot literally out to “save humankind and the planet.” Van Zan doesn’t get along with Quinn due to differences in strategy.

The dragons themselves are impressive in their grotesque beauty, looking like they deserve to win. With their serpentine torsos, they swoop through the skies, jets of flame erupting from their treacherous jaws. Intelligent, highly evolved, and visually a cut above their 1950s, B-movie counterparts. They don’t like sharing the planet, and prove it by reproducing a hundred for every one that’s eradicated.

The visually impressive dragons are the real stars of Reign of Fire and you won’t be disappointed if you like fantasy movies - and I love them - it’s called escapism.

Directed by Rob Bowman (I)

Cast:

Matthew McConaughey ... Denton Van Zan ‘Dragon Slayer’
Christian Bale ... Quinn Abercromby
Izabella Scorupco ... Alex
Gerard Butler ... Creedy
Randall Carlton ... Tito
Doug Cockle ... Goosh
Maree Duffy ... Diamond
Duncan Keegan ... Michael
Rory Keenan ... Devon
Alice Krige ... Dragon Slayer’s Mother
Scott Moutter ... Jared
Benny Nieves ... Alvarez
Alexander Siddig ... Ajay

Mott’s CD review: 

JSteppenwolf - Live

by Mott the Dog

***** 5 Stars Rating

Definitely one of the finest of many good live albums from the early seventies. Catching the live beast that was Steppenwolf at the peak of their undoubted powers.

All the hits are here, which in a way is kind of sad as this could easily be called “Greatest Hits Live” and it would be true. Steppenwolf in one guise or another are still going today, although only lead vocalist John Kay is still flying under the Steppenwolf banner purely because he legally owns the name. However, no real new product has come out of the Steppenwolf pack for 30 years.

But that’s irrelevant to this album, which is a wonderful collection of great songs played by a group of musicians, who were as tight as rugby’s front row forwards.

Only two cover songs in the set, which makes even more of a mystery why things went quiet on the creative front, and both covers are songs that they turned into their own. Opener “Sookie, Sookie” and perhaps the greatest anti-drug song ever recorded in Harry Axton’s “The Pusher”, where John Kay sings behind his sunglasses with venom and bile in his lyrics, making it more than clear what he thinks of these demons of the underworld.

All of the original songs are steeped in the turn of the decade, “Draft Resister” with rants against the draft; the Vietnam war “From Here To There Eventually”; and the American Government in general, “Don’t Step On The Grass Sam”.

Sensibility, the in between banter from Kay has been left in place, and the interplay of keyboards and guitars is a forerunner of what was to come in the late seventies.

The song “Monster”, clocking in at over ten minutes, more than lives up to its name. This version wipes the floor of its studio recorded counter part from Steppenwolf’s previous album, showing what can happen to a song when it’s taken out onto the road and sharpened up.

It is, though, the last trio of songs that the crowd has obviously been waiting for, and in the hard rock stakes the band doesn’t disappoint. “Magic Carpet Ride” is aptly titled and would be the jewel in the crown of most bands, but Steppenwolf can follow this with a sonic version of “The Pusher” and then push all the buttons with the song that gave birth to the term heavy metal “Born To Be Wild”, where Jerry Edmonton goes for it on the guitar, bringing the baying audience to a frenzy before closing the show.

Both “The Pusher” and “Born To Be Wild” were immortalized in the 1969 cult motorcycle movie “Easy Rider”. The sights and sounds of Peter Fonda, Dennis Hooper and Jack Nicholson driving across the screen to Steppenwolf is etched in anybody’s mind who was there for the sixties. “Steppenwolf Live” is not only a great album, but a monument to its era.

Musicians
John Kay - Vocals
Jerry Edmonton - Guitar
Nick St. Nicholas - Bass
Goldy McJohn - Keyboards
Larry Byron - Drums

Track Listing|
1. Sookie, Sookie
2. Don’t Step On The Grass, Sam|
3. Tighten Up Your Wig
4. Monster
5. Draft Resister
6. Power Play0
7. Corina, Corina
8. Twisted
9. From Here To There Eventually
10. Hey Lawdy Mama
11. Magic Carpet Ride
12. The Pusher
13. Born To Be Wild