Typhoon Books Web New

Typhoon Books’ website has a new look for the new year. Now it also has informations in English. There is also a Prabda Yoon page (also in Thai and English) which is in fact a blog, so I think I might move from this blog to that one as an attempt to simplify.

I plan to try to have more fun with the cyber world. I don’t know how exactly, since I’m not really good at updating and networking and all that, but there seems to be potential for independent, alternative ways of distributing literature, music, short videos, etc. So come on by to www.typhoonbooks.com once in a while and see what I manage to come up with.

Happy New Year!

New Book: Zayuu no Nippon

My second book by Typhoon Books Japan. I received it in the mail a few days ago. The title is Zayuu no Nippon which, I have been told, means something like “Japan by my side” (correct me if I’m wrong). It is the same collection of essays that was published in Thailand earlier this year as Writing to Japan. The essays are from my regular column in the Japanese magazine Eye Scream. The column (called “From a Tropical Storm”) lasted about three years (2004-2006). The essays were translated monthly by Yoshioka Norihiko who translated my story (based loosely on him!) for the film “Last Life in the Universe” a while back.

Yoshioka-san has been a good friend for many years, ever since we met each other in Bangkok. I have no way of personally approving his translation skills, but I have been told by many Japanese readers that he is good. Usually I am what one would call a skeptic, but I also believe that sometimes you just have to trust the opinions of others. Or, as Mariel Hemingway says to Woody Allen at the end of Allen’s “Manhattan”, you gotta have faith in people some times. I have faith in Yoshioka-san. Some times!

The nice cover art is by Ito Keiji: www.site-ufg.com

I am supposed to be in Tokyo in January for the promotion of this book. 

For information in Japanese about Zayuu no Nippon: www.wildwitness.com

Cosplay It Again, Siam!

Had I been born in 1992, would I be into cosplay culture right now? Who would I chose to dress up as? “Friend” from 2oth Century Boys? Very tempting. This activity seems to be getting more and more popular in Bangkok. Contests seem to happen almost every month, or close to it. Interesting thing is some of these characters I actually do know and used to be crazy about 20 years ago. I can’t quite remember their names now of course, but it’s rather impressive how these mangas and animes have remained popular for so long.

Cosplay culture may seem silly or even pointless to some people, but I don’t think it’s so different from what most people do when we put on clothes. Many of us start off by imitating our idols. They may not be people like ”L” from Death Note (what a drag it would be to carry that black notebook around like that all the time!) but still they are usually people who seem larger-than-life to us. Kids who like music often dress up similarly to the singers or musicians they worship. People chose hairstyles from looking at celebrities. Even the slackers have dress codes. Even the activists want to look like all the famous activists in the past. It’s all fashion, even when it’s for good causes. Now I don’t really care for fashion in the sense of fancy brands and current trends and catwalks and all that, but I think imitation is almost inevitable in nature. Taoist masters? They also tend to look alike!

I’m somewhat ashamed to confess that my long-hair years were influenced mainly by Bono of U2. He looked pretty cool during the Joshua Tree period. Then a little later I changed my hair to imitate the hairstyle of a guy who worked at a convenient store. I didn’t know him at all. I just thought his hair looked good. I can’t even describe what that style was now. Oh, I know, think Rihanna!

The Typhoon Band Album Cover Photo Session

As the recording of The Typhoon Band’s debut album is nearing completion, we have to start working on other areas of the work. The album cover art is certainly one of the most challenging and exciting aspects of making a music album. In the good old days it seemed that more attention was given to the cover art than it is now. Cutting-edge designers or artists (at least they were later praised as such) were assigned to make covers that would be interesting, eye-catching, and fresh as possible. I think the cover art was in fact responsible for most of the mystique in rock music.

I find most covers of commercial music now quite appalling, or boring at best. Especially now that more people no longer buy music in the traditional sense, the album cover is rapidly becoming a dying art. The better indie bands still produce nice covers here and there, but it seems the golden age of great, controversial and therefore memorable covers is long gone. When people talk about great album covers they still talk about the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band or Andy Warhol’s silk-screen banana for the Velvet Underground’s Velvet Underground & Nico.

Who are the biggest decent bands in the world right now? U2? Coldplay? Their album covers are boring. Such bands can certainly afford to come up with great covers, but now “daring and fresh” are probably not on the priority list at big music companies. It seems “hard sale” is currently the keyword in everything.

Our album cover photo session took place last week at my old residence. I used to rent an apartment there a while back, for about two years. The building is quite old, its architecture very Sixties. We used the pool area, which I always liked while I lived there but never actually swam in the pool. Ja-eh, a long time colleague since my days working at Open magazine was the photographer. Kirsten, our Singaporean filmmaker friend was there to help out. The model’s name is August.

We are quite happy with the result, but that is not to say I think our cover will be great. I will try to make it at least not so boring. Or perhaps it could be daringly boring! The album title has been decided: Naming of a Storm. If everything goes according to plan it should be released in Thailand before the end of the year.

The actual photograph used on the album cover is not shown here. These are behind-the-scene and candid stuff. The last one is an accident taken by the Holga camera. Accidents are often surprising. Sometimes they can be very beautiful. This one is strange. Too bad it’s not strange enough to make the cover.

New From Typhoon Books Thailand

The book in the top photo is the Thai translation of Yoshimoto Banana’s Hitokage. It is Typhoon Books Thailand’s first Japanese translation title. The translator is Hiroka Limviphuvadh (”Vee” or “Vee-chan”, as she is better known to her friends). Some may already know her as the designer of the brand V.L. at the webshop Tamariba. The cover art and illustrations inside are by Wisut Ponnimit (”Tum-kun”). His work makes this novella look very different from the Japanese original. We are going to conduct an online interview with Yoshimoto-san in the near future. So if anyone has questions in regards to Hitokage or other titles by her, feel free to post them here. They will be delivered to her.

The other book is my own. It’s a collection of short essays about my experiences with Japanese culture I wrote for Eye Scream, the Japanese monthly magazine. In Thai I decided to call it Writing to Japan instead of using the original column title “From a Tropical Storm”. Usually my books don’t have plain and direct titles (and maybe they should!). I have been told by some readers that this title is rather refreshing. I decided to use it because it seemed appropriate, not because I wanted it to be more accessible than my other books.

The Japanese version of Writing to Japan will be published by Typhoon Books Japan soon. I guess it should be out by the end of this month or early next month. But for those who live in Japan and are interested in getting the Thai version, it is now available at Typhoon webshop.

Update: Typhoon Books Thailand is going to move into a new office space in December. It will be called “Typhoon Studio”. It is a tiny space opposite Bangkok’s Lumpini Park, literally next to the new Japanese Embassy and Suanlum Night Bazaar. The good news is that we will welcome visitors who wish to drop by to browse our books (and other things). I’ll post the address and map here when the place is ready to open its door.

And–one more thing. Get ready also for our music!

MUD QUARTERLY

MUD is a new alternative comic quarterly magazine that will be published by Typhoon Books, Thailand.

It will feature works by “Tum-kun” (Wisut Ponnimit) as well as other Thai comic artists.

I thought it might be fun if comic artists from other countries (Japan mainly, I guess?) would like to participate.

So if you like to draw comics and want to join the trip, you are invited to submit your work to Typhoon Books.

The address can be found at www.typhoonbooks.com

Please do not send originals. It would make our lives much easier also if you could scan your work and send it as a CD. The resolution should not be lower than 300 dpi. Your story should not be more than 20 pages. If your work is in languages other than Thai or English, please provide translations. Whatever you send will not be returned to you even if it was not selected to be published. The deadline is November 9, 2007.

Beware that the reward (money!) is not much. If you’re looking for fortune, look elsewhere. As for fame…well, who knows.

Art with Water

I had to make a self-portrait for the cover of Happening, a new free art and culture magazine in Thailand (my cover is for issue #8, out in October). The portrait above is not the one I sent to the magazine. It’s one of the rejects. I don’t think it looks much like me, but there’s a feeling in it that I find interesting.

I like working with black ink, the same kind one uses for Chinese and Japanese calligraphy. I like the unpredictable quality of it. Once the tip of the brush touches the surface of the paper, you just don’t really know how the ink will travel. Maybe the really skilled artists know and can control it better, but I like not being able to control it just fine.

I find that most of the time, when I make art, I prefer the experience of the unexpected to the well-planned. I almost always end up not liking the works that turn out exactly as I pictured them in my head. I seek for surprise. So I get a lot of satisfaction from working with ink. It can seem somewhat old-fashioned, but I think the best results always look fresh. It feels like making art with water. That is, a collaboration.

Hanako (Bangkok) Revisited

Khun Win Leowarin and Udo-sensei 

(Cho, Kahori, Atsuyo) 

Yet another amusing feast with Udo-sensei and his students (whose skills in the Thai language are so good they make me feel ashamed of my non-existing Japanese skills), this time at Hanako, an izakaya-style restaurant in Bangkok (in Sukhumwit Soi 19). An added “special” that made the event different from all previous feasts was the presence of Khun Win Leowarin, a very famous, prolific, and dedicated contemporary Thai author. Udo-sensei has also translated many of Khun Win’s stories into Japanese. In 2002, a book of Khun Win’s award-winning short stories, translated by Udo-sensei, was published in Japan. That book is called “Immoral Unreal”.

I’m always impressed by Udo-sensei’s cheerfulness. (And I am certain it’s not caused entirely by his beer consumtion!) It’s always inspiring to see him. I am not sure what I feel inspired to do exactly, but he makes me feel that being a writer, especially a Thai writer, is something worthwhile and exciting. His students also make me feel that way.

Royal Thai Embassy in Tokyo

It was my first time at the Royal Thai Embassy in Tokyo. I was surprise to see that the residence of the Ambassador of Thailand to Japan is a beautiful and historic mansion. It was constructed in 1932 to be a private home of Hamaguchi Kichiemon the 10th, whose family’s soybean sauce business was famous and successful in Japan. Hamaguchi sold the mansion, completely furnished, to the Royal Thai Embassy in 1943, for one million yen!

Toilet Art at Book246

My last book-related event in Tokyo this time was at Cafe246. It was a casual and intimate Saturday afternoon chat (that somehow felt more like Sunday to me). Kenichi was there as the host. It was good to see him again. Some people who attended my first event at Cinemart in Roppongi showed up for this as well. Thanks! It was nice to finally get to know some of my Japanese readers.

Book246, the cozy bookstore next to the cafe, has a good atmosphere (not to mention wonderful selections of books) and the people there are very friendly. If some of you are reading this, thank you.

The most surprising part during the event, however, was when I had to use the toilet in the basement. I saw this on the door of the toilet I used:

One could see that this was originally “Your life is beautiful”. I guess it was put there as a “creative” idea by the people who ran the cafe, perhaps to remind you, as you sit there in pain or choking on your own intense smell, that your suffering in the toilet is just temporary agony. Then some artsy smart-ass saw it and scratched some letters out to make a new, witty statement. This is very elementary, art school stuff, but still it was kind of funny to discover.

There were 2 toilets in that restroom and I was certain the other door would have something on it as well. I went out to get my camera. I was right: