HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]: 

Bookazine Book Review

Movie Review

Mott's CD review

Sophon Cable TV Schedule

Bookazine Book Review: Tango One

by Lang Reid

Tango One (ISBN 0-340-77035-X) is the latest thriller released this year by Coronet Books from Stephen Leather, well known author and occasional seat warmer in our own Shenanigans, from whose ranks he draws inspiration and sometimes names. Should we ever forget the character called Kim Fletcher in one of his previous books? Well, just in case you have, you’ll find him again on Page 285 of this one! And for that matter, you’ll find big Dave Hoyle (Jools) on page 328.

Leather’s books are thrillers and it was interesting to see a quotation from the Daily Telegraph on the cover saying “Scalpel-sharp suspense”. Particularly apt when by page four you have been exposed to someone being methodically hacked to death!

For me, the mark of a good writer is the ability to cut through the tedium of life and present it in a fashion that appears is if it were new and somehow insightful. Describing the Commissioner of New Scotland Yard as “drinking Earl Grey tea from a porcelain cup and planning his retirement, only two years and a knighthood away.” How true.

Leather spends time building up the story line, with the personae of three of the principal characters well crafted as believable people. Despite the “undercover” aspect, the book is revolving around people you know, or did know, or don’t want to know! And one of those people just had a cool 60 million dollars misappropriated from his several numbered bank accounts throughout the world. And needless to say, he is not happy. Nor are some of his even more unsavoury friends.

The tale does involve you in the drug underworld, and all the groups either making money from it, or trying to stamp it out. There’s more to cops and robbers these days than just police and villains.

The review copy was made available from Bookazine, 1st floor, Royal Garden Plaza, next to Black Canyon and Boots. It retails for 395 baht.

Released very recently in Pattaya was the compilation CD set called “Play something you know.” I have always felt that for book writers the best advice that can be given to them is to “write about something you know.” Stephen Leather, in his personal list of jobs done, enjoyed or shirked includes journalist, quarryman, petrol pump attendant, baker, biochemist, barman and “worked for the Inland Revenue.” I am sure that the ‘been it, done it or had one’ background has assisted him in his career as a writer of believable books.

Stephen Leather also writes what I consider to be “classic” thrillers. The pace gallops along, the plot is difficult to predict, if not well nigh impossible, and the narrative draws you inside the covers so that every intrusion which makes you put the book down is resented. And the ending is nothing short of inspired. This is a classic thriller and a damn good one. If you’re a Stephen Leather fan you need this book for your collected works. If you haven’t read Stephen Leather before, then this is a good enough start for your collection. Just get it. Today, before it is sold out.

Movie Review: Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya

By Poppy

Siddalee (Sandra Bullock), is a successful playwright living in New York who is tired of her mother Vivi’s (Ellen Burstyn) eccentric and domineering behavior. She doesn’t invite her mother to come to her wedding, and because of this Sidda and her mother have a vicious war that is delivered to each other daily via overnight mail. Then Sidda receives her mother’s diary, chronicling her memories from the 30’s.

Three of Vivi’s best friends, Caro (Maggie Smith), Teensy (Fionnula Flanagan) and Necie (Shirley Knight), decide to intervene. As children they formed a secret club called the Ya-Ya sisterhood. The Ya-Yas kidnap Siddalee from New York and bring her back home to study the sacred Ya-Ya scrapbook, which details the very same personal struggles in Vivi’s life. The Ya-Yas hope that Siddalee will understand just how her mother thinks, and how the information on the past might help her reach a better understanding with her mother in the present.

The two men of the picture, both James Garner and Angus MacFadyen have their moments here and there, but the picture isn’t about men.

One of the most disturbing and hard to watch moments in Divine Secrets is a mental breakdown scene where Ashley Judd’s character Vivi stumbles around while whipping her children with a belt.

A great movie about growing up in a dysfunctional family but sometimes the flashbacks are a little confusing. You won’t see this type of casting freedom again anytime soon, so for fans of these ladies, you’d better soak up ‘Ya-Ya’ while you can.

Directed by Callie Khouri

Cast:
Sandra Bullock ... Sidda
Ellen Burstyn ... Vivi
Fionnula Flanagan ... Teensy
James Garner ... Shep Walker
Cherry Jones ... Buggy
Ashley Judd ... Younger Vivi
Shirley Knight ... Necie
Angus MacFadyen ... Connor
Maggie Smith ... Caro
Jacqueline McKenzie (I) ... Younger Teensy
Katy Selverstone ... Younger Caro
Kiersten Warren ... Younger Necie
Gina McKee ... Genevieve
Matthew Settle ... Jack
Leslie Silva ... Willetta

Mott’s CD review: 

The Clash - London Calling

by Mott the Dog

***** 5 Stars Rating

Just as the Rolling Stones in the 60s always had something to prove to the Beatles, The Clash were seen to be snapping at the heels of the Sex Pistols and were obliged in the early part of their career to pull off something exceptional time after time. And that’s just what they did, more or less defining punk’s agenda in broadening 70’s angst into the world of mainstream and revolutionary politics.

Busting at the seams with creative energy, The Clash’s stunning 1979 double album “London Calling”, digitally re-mastered from the original production tapes, puts both vinyl albums on one CD. This reissue of the band’s 3rd album features all the original artwork and all nineteen of the original tracks including the hidden hit single “Train In Vain (stand by me)”, their first U.S. single to chart (it reached No. 23 on the Billboard at the time).

“London Calling” more than made up for the artistic and commercial disappointment of its predecessor, 1978’s tried-too-hard heavy metal bluster of “Give’ Em Enough Rope”. With ex-Mott the Hoople producer Guy Stevens harnessing their sound like no one had ever done before, giving them that vital fresh in your face sound, that gave them the music of the days youth, which still sounds alive now. The band served up what proved to be the best work of their short lived career (the band finally split in disarray in 1985, but were inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll hall of fame in 2001. How punk is that?).

The tracks bouncing from the brutal hard rock of the one cover song (Vince Taylor’s “Brand New Cadillac”), to the rockabilly of “Revolution Rock”, to Reggae in “Rudy Can’t Fail”, and to the apocalyptic vision of the title track with the immortal opening lines of “London calling to the faraway towns, Now that war is declared - and battle come down, London calling to the underworld Come out of the cupboard, all you boys and girls”

The Clash knocked down all the musical walls, being to punk what Santana has become to mainstream rock, in being able to take on any style and in the process end the argument over punk’s viability.

Too many tracks to mention in one review, but in summery, The Clash really deserve their “only band that matters” credo (of course given to them by their record company not themselves) because they don’t try too hard to stay punk like their previous two albums, but instead surrender to the atmospheres of the other genres round them, and make it accessible to all different types of people.

London Calling was couched in the language of revolutionary desperadoes. Influenced by reggae and ska, augmented by Irish Horns, the result was one of the most heady, celebratory Rock ‘n’ Roll records to have come out of the punk movement.

For every traditional rabblerouser like “Death Or Glory” there was a starker truth to London Calling like “Guns of Brixton” that confirmed The Clash’s ideological importance to a generation. Seldom, if ever, has punk sounded so gloriously righteous or so right.

Musicians
Mick Jones - Guitars, Vocals
Joe Strummer - Vocals, Rhythm Guitar
Paul Simonon - Bass, Vocals
Topper Headon - Drums, Percussion

Track Listing
1. London Calling
2. Brand New Cadillac
3. Jimmy Jazz
4. Hateful
5. Rudie Can’t Fail
6. Spanish Bombs
7. The Right Profile
8. Lost In The Supermarket
9. Clampdown
10. The Guns Of Brixton
11. Wrong’ Em Boyo
12. Death Or Glory
13. Koka Kola
14. The Card Cheat
15. Lover’s Rock
16. Four Horsemen
17. I’m Not Down
18. Revolution Rock
19. Train In Vain

News | Business News | Features | Columns | Letters | Sports | Auto Mania
Kid's Corner | Who’s Who | Travel | Our Community | Dining Out & Entertainment
Social Scene | Classifieds | Community Happenings | Books Music Movies
Club in Pattaya | Sports Round-Up

E-mail: [email protected]
Pattaya Mail Publishing Co., Ltd.
370/7-8 Pattaya Second Road, Pattaya City, Chonburi 20260, Thailand
Tel.66-38 411 240-1, 413 240-1, Fax:66-38 427 596

Copyright © 2002 Pattaya Mail. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.