Art Basel 39
(Artkrush, May 2008)
(TimeOut HK, May 2008)
(more…)
Checking into the Lane Xang
What’s good enough for Hunter S. Thompson is good enough for me. When my friends said their crew would be staying at the Lane Xang hotel in Vientiane, I knew that name rang a bell somewhere– only later realized it’s where the late, great HST stayed after skipping out on Saigon. He wrote a famous essay about checking in here and being unable to shake the persistent offers of “female company” from the staff. I didn’t have this problem, but otherwise the place seems the same. Retro commie-aesthetic heaven!
Sookdy Apartements
My dream apartment in 1963 Vientiane.
Basically when not with the video crew, I just walked around this tiny, adorable capital taking pictures of old sixties buildings and eating croissants. How colonial!
More here:
http://flickr.com/photos/samanthaculp/sets/72157604824954350/
Chasing the Dreamchasers: Vientiane, Lao
I got to meet up with the Dreamchaser team in Vientiane, Lao for a few days– if you’re not up on your Thai television, the show Dreamchaser (now filming Season Two) features a man, a motorcycle, and his search for inspiring people and experiences on the road. Besides the exhilaration of easy-riding, the program also raises awareness about charity organizations throughout Southeast Asia, like Makphet in Vientiane (pictured here, a restaurant run by former street youths).
More info on this fun and meaningful project:
www.dreamchaserthai.com
Thanks to Juke, Nam, and the whole Pop Productions gang for letting me tag along!
(photoset: http://flickr.com/photos/samanthaculp/sets/72157604847867203/)
Bangkok Bliss
So— went to Bangkok during Songkran and had a lovely (and only minimally-soaked) few days. Highlights include: seeing a great show by Stylish Nonsense at No Space Gallery, watching Sang Sattawat (Syndromes & a Century) at the theatre in its censored but still-radical glory, discovering the joys of Vanilla Garden (pictured), seeing the few friends in town during the holiday, mild splashings, insane food as usual, checking out Tomyam Pladib at the Jim Thompson Art Center and catching up on the Bangkok Experimental Film Fest offerings that I missed at the William Warren Library next door (thanks Mary and David!), and shockingly making it from Thanon Wittayu onto my Thai Airways plane bound for Vientiane in ONE HOUR FLAT (alarm didn’t go off and I thought I missed the flight for sure, go TG!) (click through to photoset here
http://flickr.com/photos/samanthaculp/sets/72157604824906020/)