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Book Review: Bangkok 8

by Lang Reid

Another new release and another thriller this week. Bangkok 8 (ISBN 0-593-05161-0) is written by John Burdett, an ex-lawyer, now living in Hong Kong and the author of two other books, ‘A Personal History of Thirst’ and ‘The Last Six Million Seconds’.

The book begins with an Afro-American minor embassy official who is murdered by suffocation from a python, whilst sitting in a locked car full of poisonous spitting vipers, just in case the python gave up before completing the job. He was being tailed by the central character, a Thai-Farang police detective in the Bangkok police force, with his sidekick whom he considers to be his ‘soul brother’ in their Buddhist aspirations and traditions.

Short, snappy paragraphs divide the book into 52 chapters which has several threads running through it, from jade artefacts, methamphetamine running, high class Russian prostitution, low class Thai prostitution, gender reassessment, police corruption and dark influences. It appears to have everything you would find in a week of Thai newspapers, all rolled into one book.

Just to make it international, bring in a shady, but very well heeled and even better connected American art jeweller, and a dogged FBI detective who has made it her life’s work to nail him. And, I almost forgot, a piece of erotic body jewellery fashioned as a gold stick.

I found it difficult to get inside this book, as the character of the Thai-Farang police inspector did not gel for me. The dialogue I also found not credible, where, for example, an alcoholic Thai slum dweller, living under a bridge, describes a DVD movie he has seen with words as, “I liked the bit where he slits the side of a buffalo with a razor and drinks the blood. I never would have thought of that, those Cambodians are rough trade.” This is from a man who a few pages later is described as not having a brain cell left in his head. In fact, the extreme western concepts and thought patterns as possessed by many characters in the book took away from the total effect. This book could have been set in New York, with all the bit-players American. They did not come across as Thai to me in their thought patterns.

Sonchai, the central character spends much of the book indulging in self-analysis, and I believe it takes away from the thriller theme, which was perfectly adequate without Sonchai’s soul searching.

The book describes Bangkok and Pattaya accurately, but states that the flight from Don Muang to Chiang Mai takes 30 minutes. Perhaps I should fly first class like Detective Sonchai, it is apparently much quicker.

The denouement was, for me at least, all a little too contrived, while hiding behind a westerner’s view of oriental psycho-society. The concept that everyone got their come-uppance was just too way out, too glib and in some ways too trite. Despite this, it is a well written book, but not for me. Give me something more straightforward, without the attempts at psychoanalysis.

The review copy was made available by Bookazine with an RRP of a fairly steep B. 650.

Movie Review: Bruce the Almighty

By Poppy

The mere thought of Jim Carey acting as God is enough to make you shake in your boots!

The movie is about Bruce Nolan (Carey), who’s a not very good reporter for Buffalo’s Channel 7 Eyewitness News. Things aren’t going so well in Bruce’s life and on one particularly bad day, when he gets booted off his job and crashes his car among other things, he blames God. God (Morgan Freeman) invites Bruce to visit for a chat. God has had enough of people blaming him for everything so he decides to go on holiday. God decides that while he’s on holiday Bruce can be God with all of his powers and see how easy a job it is. Needless to say Bruce, being the selfish, self-centered person he is, abuses his newfound power to his own advantage. It’s not long before Bruce realizes God’s work isn’t as easy as he thought.

Jennifer Aniston plays Bruce’s long suffering rather pathetic girlfriend Grace who spends all her time trying to make his life easier and gets little thanks for it.

The word heresy has been mentioned but I don’t why, while I’m certain God wouldn’t give his powers to someone like Bruce, I’m sure he would be happy with the way his character was portrayed by Morgan Freeman, with a sense of humor and a genuine sense of love for each of us, yet ready to take a little holiday when the opportunity presents itself.

Directed by Tom Shadyac

Cast:

Jim Carey ... Bruce Nolan

Morgan Freeman ... God

Jennifer Aniston ... Grace Connelly

Philip Baker Hall ... Jack Keller

Catherine Bell ... Susan Ortega

Lisa Ann Walter ... Debbie

Steven Carell ... Evan Baxter

Nora Dunn ... Ally Loman

Edward Jemison ... Bobby (as Eddie Jemison)

Paul Satterfield (II) ... Dallas Coleman

Mark Kiely ... Fred Donohue

Sally Kirkland ... Anita Mann

Timothy Di Pri ... Bruce’s Cameraman (as Timothy DiPri)

Brian Tahash ... Bruce’s Soundman

Lou Felder ... Pete Fineman

Mott’s CD review: 

Led Zeppelin - DVD

by Mott the Dog 
re-mastered By Ella Crew

5 Stars *****

At last a true document of the greatest band that ever trod the boards in the name of Rock ‘n’ Roll. Twenty-four years after their last concert together, and twenty-three years since the tragic death of powerhouse drummer John Bonham, we get the proof that Led Zeppelin were the Lords of Rock ‘n’ Roll. They were then and they still are today. If you had to put a 4-piece band together from any era at the peak of their powers, these are the four young men you would pick.

John Bonham was the most powerful drummer ever to sit behind a drum kit and was the engine room for Led Zeppelin, battering both his drum kit and his audience into submission.

John Paul Jones was a pioneer of the bass guitar, felt of finger and heavy on the riff, leading the way for other such talented bass players who played as if they were a lead instrument not just part of the rhythm section.

Out the front for Led Zeppelin was a certain Robert ‘Percy’ Plant who was to become the template for all lead vocalists following in Zeppelin’s wake. Robert Plant never misses a note in this entire collection of songs.

Founding member of Led Zeppelin was the brilliant Jimmy Page, who had already a flourishing career as a session guitarist starting to work professionally at the age of sixteen. It was Jimmy Page who laid down the guitar introduction to The Kinks ‘You Really Got Me’, which was the riff that gave us heavy metal music in the first place.

Spread over two discs you get four and a half hours of music running chronologically from 1969 to 1979, which has almost been set out as one long concert. The way it has all been edited together is a credit to Jimmy Page and his sidekick Dick Carruthers, who painstakingly spent months going through any footage they could find of the band and carefully brought them back to life.

One of the most fascinating aspects of this DVD collection is that it captures, intimately for the first time, a band that famously fought shy of cameras throughout its career.

Included for your amusement and edification is an hour’s worth of promo clips, interviews, and such forth, all lovingly put together in such a way that nothing interferes with the music, adding up to over five and a half hours of scintillating viewing.

As you watch the delights of Led Zeppelin unfold, the most fascinating aspect is that although the whole band starts off at warp factor nine at the Royal Albert Hall in 1969, as they play through the years arriving at Knebworth in 1979, they still managed somehow to improve. The only song that is featured live twice over the four and a half hour journey is ‘Whole Lotta Love’. Although the playing on both is simply stunning, the difference ten years make leaves your jaw on the floor.

A companion audio only 3 CD collection of a completely different recording, compiling an entire Led Zeppelin concert from 1975, has been released simultaneously under the title ‘How The West Was Won’. So you get one set to watch at home and one to listen to in the car. The release of these two volumes surely represents the long searched for Holy Grail of Rock ‘n’ Roll.

Led Zeppelin: Robert Plant - Vocals and Harmonica, Jimmy Page - Electric and Acoustic Guitars, John Paul Jones - Bass Guitar, Keyboards, and Mandolin, John Bonham - Drums, and Percussion

Tracks: Disc One - We’re Gonna Groove, I Can’t Quit You Baby, Dazed and Confused, White Summer, What Is And What Should Never Be, How Many More Times, Moby Dick, Whole Lotta Love, C’Mon Everybody, Something Else, Bring it On Home. Extras: Communication Breakdown (Promo-1969), Dansmark Radio-1969, Supershow-1969, Tous En Scene-1969.

Disc Two: Immigrant Song, Black Dog, Misty Mountain Hop, Since I’ve Been Loving You, The Ocean, Going To California, That’s The Way, Bron Yr Aur Stomp, In My Time Of Dying Trampled Underfoot, Stairway To Heaven, Rock and Roll, Nobody’s Fault But My Own, Sick Again, Achilles Last Stand, In The Evening, Kashmir, Whole Lotta Love. Extras: NYC Press Conference, Down Under. The Old Grey Whistle Test.

Promos - If that track listing does not make you want to buy it then nothing will, and, by the way, you missed the boat.

To contact Mott the Dog email: [email protected]

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