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BOOKS - MOVIES - MUSIC

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Book Review

Mott's CD review

Movie Review

Book Review: Working with the Thais

by Lang Reid

A Guide to Managing in Thailand

This is the second edition of this business management book written by American Henry Holmes and Thai Suchada Tangtongtavy, with additional help from Roy Tomizawa, a Japanese American, and published last year. With this rich multicultural background it would appear that the book would be written from a base of experience. That it is, with the principals having been here in Thailand for many years and running communications and team-work/building seminars for almost thirty years.

Despite utopian calls for equality and lack of discrimination between races, creeds and religions, there will always be some essential sociological differences. This is not prejudice. This is fact. When two people from vastly different backgrounds have to work together, there will be communications hurdles to overcome. These hurdles are much greater than pure “language” problems and this book is aimed at correcting that.

It is divided into seven chapters, covering the Anatomy of a Conflict, Thai Society, Social strata, Thai concepts in Management, Motivation, Social roles and Changes in Thai Business culture amongst other items.

Even those who have lived in Thailand for some time may be taken aback that in the Land of Smiles there are 13 varieties of the ‘yim” - all with their own very distinct meanings. Do you know how to recognize the Yim thang nam taa (happy smile) from the Yim sao (sad smile) for example?

The ingrained rules of etiquette in Thai society are ones within which the expat manager must learn to work. It is not realistic to expect the Thais to change - you are, after all, trying to work in Thailand. This message comes through loud and clear in the book, with detailed explanations of the subtle nuances. Why, for example, do Thai managers talk amongst themselves in Thai when you, the non-Thai speaker are with them? Is it bad manners? Is it an attempt to hide details from you? No, it is more likely the fact that to maintain the hierarchical system between them as individuals they need the complexities of address which only their native language gives. The title “you” does not have such values.

Probably one of the most valuable chapters is the one on Getting the Job Done. The previous chapters have given reasons as to “why” things happen, but this chapter now tells “how” things happen. The principle of good communication is not to shout louder, and ways to counteract the problem are well spelled out.

Available from Bookazine, corner of Beach Road and Soi Pattayaland 1 for 395 baht, it does much more than show how to understand the Thais in business, it also shows just how the Thais can get confused by the ex-pats and their societal values. It is a book that can give the expat more understanding of a different culture. It is very well detailed and should be kept as a handy reference manual, and one that needs re-reading if you are to keep pace in this country as a competent expat manager. This book is invaluable and extremely practical.

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Mott’s CD review:

Steve Hillman - Convergence

by Mott the Dog

***** 5 Star Rating

It has long been a bone of contention with this dog - why Steve Hillman is not an international star with his CDs nestling in CD collections alongside the likes of Mike Oldfield, Pink Floyd and Tangerine Dream.

Having already released two collections of his work on the magnificent Cyclops label, “Matrix” (’94) and “Riding The Storm” (’96), in 1999 Steve released “Convergence” to wide critical acclaim. As in all his recordings, Steve plays all the instruments apart from the beautiful flute passages played by his wife, Linda, who also did all the artwork for his 3 albums so far, which are worth the price of the CDs in themselves.

Steve Hillman’s 3rd album was a bit of a change in direction in that he produced a much more progressive rock album than his other, more synth dream scoped based earlier CDs. It moves away from The Tangerine Dream style with less sequences and electronics, relying far more on Steve’s hard driving guitar work and the rhythm of the songs. It has far more structured pieces with all the elements of classical music, hard rock, ethnic, folk, and modern dance all mixed together.

“Convergence” is like its predecessors, an all-instrumental album with much more of Steve’s usual biting electric guitar work and Linda’s subtle flute playing. This album is actually much more upbeat than anything he has done before, although it still has its dark brooding passages, making the tension in the music work very well by contrast. It is definitely his most ambitious and musically complex project so far.

All of the melodies from all the different sections are extremely mesmerizing, drilling into your memory banks, deeper and deeper the more you listen to them, with many recurring themes popping up when you least expect them, catching you off guard, making sure you are paying attention.

Steve Hillman - all instruments
Linda Hillman - flute and artwork

Track Listing

1i Wheels Within Wheels (part one)
ii Against All Odds
iii A Time That Was
iv Against All Odds (reprise)
5 Moon Gate
6i Flying High
ii The Earth Sleeps Below
iii Down To Earth
9i New Horizons
ii Pulsator
iii Obelisk
12 Upon The Hill
13 Convergence
14 A Time That Was
15i Wheels Within Wheels (part two)
ii Twist Of Fate
iii Upon Reflection
iv Wheels Of Change
v Finale
20 For What Is To Come...

You might have noticed the strange numbering, the idea is that some of the tracks are multi-parted so only part of the whole, but the first parts theme always reoccurs to make it whole. Now go figure that out yourself.

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Movie Review: The Man Who Cried

By Poppy

The year is 1927. A little Jewish girl (Fegele) lives happily with her father and her grandmother in a Russian village. But with the ever-present threat of persecution, her father leaves for America to find work and then send for his family. Soon after he leaves, violence engulfs the village. Fegele is bundled off with some fleeing villagers who hope to get to America, but she ends up on a boat to England.

Fegele is re-named Suzie and sent to a Christian foster home and to a school where she is forbidden to speak Yiddish but learns to sing. Ten years later she leaves England for Paris, where she gets a job in the new opera company of impresario Felix Perlman. She starts to save, hoping to earn enough money to pay for her passage to America. Suzie falls in love with gypsy horse-handler Cesar (Johnny Depp). Her friend Lola falls for Dante Dominio, an arrogant Italian opera singer.

When the German army invades Paris, Dante, with Lola at his side, immediately collaborates with the Nazis, while Suzie joins Cesar and his band of gypsy musicians. The Nazis have plans to round up the Jews and Gypsies but Suzie escapes on a ship. In the mid-Atlantic the ship to America is bombed but Suzie lives. Once in America, Suzie continues her search for her father, which finally leads her to Hollywood...

This is a curious but intriguing movie that leaves you bemused and more than a little confused, starting with the all-but-inexplicable title.

Directed by: Sally Potter

Cast:

Christina Ricci as Suzie
Cate Blanchett as Lola
John Turturro as Dante Dominio
Johnny Depp as Cesar
Harry Dean Stanton as Felix Perlman
Claudia Lander-Duke as Young Suzie
Oleg Yankovsky as The Father

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