life HAPPENING 2 | TUESDAY, JUNEt 10, 2014 | Bangkok Post

TODAY

THINK BOX Adam Kohut We’ve been emoti-conned

e’d had a vicious fight, angry and tear-streaked and brutal and personal. About halfway through all of this, oceans and mountain ranges, through She threw a vase; I upended a table. Snarling, she ripped a phone book I realised that we are slowly devolving, war zones and time zones. We are more in half; I karate-chopped through a plate glass window. She bit me, back towards the Neanderthal days, closely linked than ever before. We are ‘The Jolly Month Of June’: A French hard, on the elbow, causing blood to well up in carmine, tooth-shaped when Og would fascinate Grug and Oob inextricable. We are, in essence, one. music and poetry recital featuring beads. So I yanked her ponytail. and Muk and the others with pictorial But we’ve never been further apart. performances by Bernard Lorin, Sophie WI’ll tell you, it was a good ol’ rough and tumble brawl, ending only when she stormed out, tales of the hunt, which, as history will We hide, safe and sound, behind Tanapura and Elvira Galiullina. At the the door crashing behind her in a hinge-quaking slam. Hours later, a message appeared on tell you, were often painted inside caves pixel grins and eight-bit grimaces. Oh Neilson Hays Library, Surawong Road, my phone, by way of a sheepish, grey-striped cat. It squinted and waved a green pennant. using juice from squished berries. sure, we express ourselves, show happi- starting at 7pm. Tickets cost 600 baht “I want a divorce,” it said, the letters cartoony and puffy and jaunty, like multicoloured Rock walls, of course, have thus given ness, excitement, sadness, disappoint- (300 baht for students). bubblegum bubbles. way to digital ones. And millennia from ment, anger, grief — but usually from Call 02-233-1731 or 02-932-9208. now, after the robots have taken over, behind a computer’s screen, awash they will sift through the binary-coded in the Vicodin comfort of its polter- Tips To Help Strengthen Your Relation- “We are inextricable. We are, in essence, one. compu-rubble of what was our once- geist glow. ship With Your Child: A talk conducted great civilisation, scanning and cata- Why risk exposure to the Gin- in English by Dr Thomas Dellario. At But we’ve never been further apart.” loguing our pictures and status updates, su-sharp blades of genuine emotion, of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of tirelessly organising, in chronological home-grown socialisation? They’ll cut Thailand, Phloenchit Road, from 6.30pm order, the reliquary wall posts of old, right through us, you’re damn right they to 8.30pm. The admission fee is 600 baht piecing us, individually and collectively, will, through all the meat and bone and (free for IPN members). I responded with a leering, amorphous, cyclopean blob, with buckteeth. It had this look back together. viscera and nerve endings, right down Call 081-826-2399. in its eye like, “Right back at’cha, doll face”. Then they’ll turn to one another and to the heart, which, as everyone knows, She then sent a digital thumbs-up, which I winked at. they’ll say, “Well, would you look at that, is quite sensitive for a hollow organ. ‘Muay Thai Live — The Legend Lives’: I’ll have to Line-sticker my lawyer soon, because I suppose I need his help. I’m torn EG-95 — they were just like us!” It’s just plain awkward, you see, Featuring “hyperreal” muay Thai fights, between the disgruntled bunny with a wilting broken heart hovering above its head and “Af-fir-ma-tive,” EG-95 will respond. speaking voice-to-voice — or worse, breathtaking stunts and sweeping drama, the red-faced fury of Stella Supernova, who, as far as I can tell, is a spacewoman who does And we are. We are just like them. face-to-face. It initiates discourse that at Asiatique The Riverfront, Charoen lots of science experiments, at least when she is not flying her way-cool rocket ship or We are both cavemen and robots, our puts into play vocal inflections and Krung Road, at 8pm. Tickets cost 1,200, playing goofy games with her pet alien, which suspiciously resembles a regular octopus. eyes glazed and unfocused, bleary and facial expressions and gestures and 1,500 and 2,200 baht. If he doesn’t respond, I will (in this order) Facebook message, WhatsApp, WeChat, Ins- blank, as we type and click and drag physical and non-physical cues. And Visit www.muaythailive.net or call tagram, Tweet at, regular text message and email him. I hope I hear back soon. We really and drop and Ctrl-X and Ctrl-Y until that, sports fans, can get tricky, espe- 02-108-5999. need to shovel a bit of coal into this divorce’s engine, him and I, really get her chugging the Farmville cows come home, using cially considering there’s not an app to along to Splitsville. pictures and sounds and icons as crude track it all. Nai-in Roadshow 2014 — Let’s Go Any- While I waited, I pulled up a website and read a bunch of knee-slapping memes, stand-ins for critical thoughts and feel- Our lives are getting easier, no ques- where: Organised by the bookstore chain. which are stock images — a cranky cat, a doleful bear, Patrick Stewart, etc. — we use to ings and opinions. I guess they don’t call tion about that. But our souls? Well Features creative workshops on creative communicate without really communicating at all, via self-reflexive, pop cultural phra- it Android for nothing. now. Our souls are dimming, becom- topics plus a book sale (discounts of 50 seology, which essentially leave us squawking into the void, simultaneously, like a flock We Line and WhatsApp and Face- ing blanched and discoloured, shrivel- to 70%), at Future Park, Phahon Yothin of brain-damaged parrots. book and WeChat, splurting out emojis ling into antiquity, where they will rest Road. Until June 15. And don’t you worry, either, because I made sure to share the ones I liked best on and emoticons (which are the same, but beside cargo shorts and Halle Berry. Call 02-958-0011. various social media platforms, hashtagging scatterbrained, half-cocked — often oddly also kind of different — the mestizos and It’s sadface; it’s really, really sadface. specific — words and phrases (#anyonenamedtoddwhohasacleftpalatewillappreciatethis) mulattoes of meta-communication) Taste of Japan @ Prom Fair: which, if you ask me, are very complementary and by no means bring to mind a babbling and stickers with slapdash abandon. Adam Kohut is a sub-editor for the Featuring Japanese arts and crafts, food, mental patient from a 21st century version of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. We communicate, in real time, across Life section of the Bangkok Post. live martial arts, dance and fashion dis- plays, at Promenada Resort Mall, Chiang Mai. Until June 15. Visit www.promenadachiangmai.com or call 053-107-888.

Thai and World Travel IX Fair: Featuring discounts of up to 60% on tour and accommodation packages for des- tinations in both Thailand and abroad. At Future Park shopping centre, Phahon Yothin Road. Until June 16. Call 02-958-0011.

Forget Me Not: An exhibition that explores why so many Thai people over- look the importance of national treasures. At Museum Siam, Sanam Chai Road. Until June 29. Visit www.museumsiam.org or call 02-225-2777 ext 123. A photo by Nana Chen. One of the pictures on display in ‘Hiraeth’. Beyond Silk exhibition: Featuring life- style and innovative products made from silk. At Museum Siam, Sanam Chai Road. Mansions as microcosm of society Until June 29. Call 02-225-2777 ext 416. Celebrated photographer Nana Chen will An estimated 4,000 people live there, In looking at the photos, one conjures showcase a collection of photographs including migrant workers and refugees the sights and sensations that form our Wild Range: An exhibition by wildlife portraying Hong Kong’s infamous from Africa and Asia and local and main- own images of home. Inspired by the art- photographer Baramee Temboonkiat Chungking Mansions, which is said to be land citizens. Businesses include clothing ist’s journeys, “Hiraeth” allows Chungking Demons alive at showcasing the wildlife and underwater among the cheapest accommodation in shops, restaurants, guesthouses and cur- Mansions to breathe with the quiet profun- creatures of Thailand. At Promenada this city. rency exchange dealers. In 2008, a tourist dities of disparate lives. Resort Mall, Chiang Mai. Until June 30. “Hiraeth” is the Bangkok debut solo allegedly disappeared inside the building Chen is currently based in Saigon after Thammasat University Call 053-107-888. exhibition by the female Taiwanese pho- and was never seen again. a nomadic childhood in Latin America, tographer who has been published in the Chen’s photographs capture fragments North America and Asia. Her photographic To celebrate its 80th anniversary, finger, which can kill anyone at Art For Ocean: An exhibition of sculp- Observer Magazine, Marie Claire, D-La of stillness and beauty within this seeth- projects have included polo players in New Thammasat University will present whom it is pointed. Shiva grants his ture, paintings, photographs and other Repubblica and many others. ing edifice. Delhi, Vietnam’s female billionaires and a khon mask dance portraying the wish. However, Nontok misuses the artworks on sharks and other forms of Chen explores the building as a micro- Her works are a gentle inquiry into how the global rise of Chinese tourism. prelude of the epic Ramakien at the divine weapon, killing many angels marine life created by artists, ambassa- cosm of the contemporary world. This com- a sense of home can be experienced by the university’s Main Hall, Tha Phra Chan until Shiva orders Lord Narai to fight dors, celebrities and media people. plex is a vast, densely-populated arena of building’s itinerant population. ‘Hiraeth’ will be displayed at RMA campus on Sunday at 2pm. with him. In the Sky Lobby, 23rd floor, Centara multiculturalism where shifts between pri- Light falls on scruffy walls, the glow of Institute from June 12-July 13. The art It will be performed by the phe- Narai transforms himself into a Grand at CentralWorld, Ratchadamri vate and public lives are abrupt. Capitalism neon splashes across a cracked window, space is located on Sukhumvit Soi 22 nomenal Khon Thammasat troupe, dancer and seduces Nontok to dance Road. Until July 15. thrives throughout and produces the same human shadows hint at the private lives and is open Tuesday to Sunday from which was established in 1966 by the after her, using one dance form that Call 02-100-1234 ext 6753—6. severe social inequalities as society. lived within. 9.30am to 7pm. Call 02-663-0809. late political guru MR Kukrit Pramoj, requires the dancer to point to his who was also a respected amateur own knee. Nontok imitates the ges- performer of khon dance. ture and kills himself with his mag- Performed by former and current ical finger. university students, the new pro- In his last moments, Nontok duction is adapted from the episode accuses Narai of foul play. Narai Samples of jewellery Glitter like a gemstone of Narai Prab Nontok, Hanuman decrees that in his next life, Nontok designs from previous Thawai Phon And Yok Rob. will be born as Thotsakan, a giant years. Fairy Of Angel It’s time to play big with gemstones. The designs can be submitted in It tells the story of the demon with 10 heads and 20 hands, and by Jirawat Somsanoh. The Gem and Jewelry Institute of the form of coloured drawings, created Nontok, who is unhappy with his duty that Narai will be born as Phra Ram, Thailand (GIT) invites jewellery by hand or computer-generated, on as a servant, washing the angels’ feet a human with only two hands. And designers to enter the “GIT World’s A3-sized paper. They must be original before they meet Lord Shiva. For a the pair will fight on Earth. Jewelry Design Awards 2014” to vie for and have never been produced for com- thousand years, these angels con- cash prizes worth $15,000 (500,000 baht) mercial purposes or contests before. stantly mock him, rap his head, slap Tickets cost 100 baht and are in total. The first, second and third prize his face and pull his hair. available at the door. Visit Held for the eighth year under the winners in the men’s and women’s cat- With anger and sorrow, he goes www.tu.ac.th or call 02-613-3030 theme “Battle of Colors: The Design egories will respectively receive $3,500, to see Shiva and begs for a diamond or 02-564-4440 ext 1117/8. Your Eyes Can’t Ignore”, the contest $2,000 and $1,500. There is also a pop- is open to everyone with creative ular design award worth $1,000, which ideas aged 18-45 years, regardless of will be given to the semi-finalist design nationality. Participants are required that gets the most votes at www.git.or.th. to design a collection of jewellery for Each winner will also receive a trophy. men or women. Each contestant may submit no more Each collection must comprise at than three collections to the Training least three precious accessories — Centre, The Gem and Jewelry Institute a necklace, a pair of earrings, a ring, of Thailand (Public Organisation), third a bracelet or a brooch — using any kind floor, 140, ITF Building, Silom Road, of gemstone as the primary Surawong, Bang Rak, Bangkok 10500. element. However, the designs The submission deadline is July 23. must be able to be practically developed into real jewel- Visit www.git.or.th or call 02-634- lery products. 4999 ext 311 or 088-002-8624. The Nest by Pairoj Srithanwa.