Archive Page 2
Chơi Vơi (Adrift)
Let’s go art house baby…
…there’s a new Vietnamese “phim” called Chơi Vơi (Adrift) – nope, it’s not a Dead Calm kinda film if you’re picturing a young couple float away into the big blue open sea on a Halong junk (“Curse these cheap Sinh cafe tours!”) before innocently picking up Billy Zane, blithely unawares that he’s actually homicidal maniac scouring the South China Sea searching for unsuspecting victims. It’s directed by Bui Thac Chuyen and it’s most definitely going for “sensual, intimate and atmospheric” — no surprises there as it’s an arthouse film set in Vietnam — but it’s also taken on some controversial subject matter with a story centred around a newlywed couple who have what you might call a sexual awakening (Read lesbian desire and marital infidelity). Anyway, looks promising judging by the trailer below.
In case you’re interested it stars Do Thi Hai Yen of Quiet American fame, Jonny Tri Nguyen of The Rebel and Linh-Dan Pham of The Beat That My Heart Skipped. Local Hanoians might also spot one of the lead singers of Đại- Lâm- Linh (check those guys out on youtube) if you haven’t before), (she also owns Cong Ca phe so you might also recognise her from there…) towards the end of the trailer. And fair play to her says us.
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Tags: Chơi Vơi (Adrift), dai lam linh, Do Thi Hai Yen, phim, vietnam
The Pattaya fashion show
The online newspaper Dan Tri (translated by Vietnamnet) recently featured a story on Pattaya, a group of five transsexuals who perform fashion shows at a café in Hanoi’s Hai Ba Trung district.
The report claims that while transsexuals are no longer “uncommon in Ho Chi Minh City” this is a bit more of a sensation in the capital city.
The shows, which take place twice a week, have apparently attracted a lot of “curious, mainly male, customers” and when Pattaya hit the stage it’s often “standing room only”, according to the café’s staff.
Before performances the MC comes clean announcing that the girls have “had to experience many plastic surgeries so that their bodies look as they do today”. To maintain their appearance the MC adds they have to return to Thailand annually for “maintenance”.
In case you were wondering the group chose the name “Pattaya” in a tribute to the popular holiday destination in Thailand where they “found themselves”. For those of you who don’t know, there are certain parts of Pattaya where most tourists don’t come armed with their bucket and spade and an unputdownable-novel.
Filed under: Whimsical, links | 2 Comments
Tags: hanoi, pattaya girls, transsexuals
The Comical Hat’s trusted associate Aidan B. Dockery picked up first prize in the 2009 Asian GAA Photo Competition (* this link might be khong duoc — but the winning pic is below so just take my word for it… he won!), (Poor old Josh always shuts his eyes for the glam shots), (And for the record we won that game so we did).
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Handsome Furs in Vietnam
A wee reminder before you all head off your national holiday peregrinations to be back in Hanoi on September 11 as the good people of C.A.M.A. introduce the Handsome Furs to Hanoi — and also I do believe the good news for our dear readers from Sunny side up Saigon is the Canadian duo also play Vasco’s on September 10 (but I have no idea who’s behind that but if I was you I’d be there at… oooh, let’s say… 935pm at the latest, fashionably late, like, and if my last few visits to the “southern hub” are anything to go by you might have to be wearing a hat).
The Hanoi gig’s at the same venue Girl Talk played — if you weren’t at that show, well, you missed the gig of the summer, so don’t miss this (and check the C.A.M.A. site for address/ map or sign up for Facebook jiggery-pokery).
And while I have you, here’s a vid…
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Tags: c.a.m.a., handsome furs, hanoi, saigon, vasco's, vietnam
Dwindling dailies
Thanh Nien’s English language daily is to become a weekly — the metamorphosis occurs Friday, September 4. Full Reuters story here.
“Thanh Nien’s weekly edition will be 40 pages, supplemented by daily updates to an English-language website…”
So for English language dailies that leaves us with you-know-who (kẻ mà ai cũng biết là ai đây) and the Saigon Times, Vietnam’s “leading business daily.”
‘Tis a pity — the more the merrier says us, though I’ll admit that I never bought a single copy of Thanh Nien, letting the neighbourhood cafe’s buy it for me.
But you might have noticed a new link amongst the links (to your right): Viet News Online, which I’ve discovered recently. That’s the online-only English version of all things Tuoi Tre, another local rag. So while English-language print options dwindle, the online options expand.
“And sure isn’t that the way of the world,” said the old man wistfully while stoking the dying embers of the fire. “Was all trees around here when I was a lad.”
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Vietnamese food is so hot right now — it’s sizzling hot, like banh xeo sizzling hot. The latest chef-food-cookery-show-man to show some hot love for the local cuisine is Rick Stein.
Now he might not be the glamorous tearaway Antony Bourdain is but goddamnit he’s allowed to eat in Vietnam, too — and he probably won’t pretend he loves it so much that he’s going to live in Hoi An like Mr. Bourdain likes to maintain (though I haven’t watched the full episode of his show, so if Rick does claim he wants to move to *** *** to hang out with Gene Wilder, I’ll take that back right away).
Anyway, here’s part one of his show in Vietnam– and part three below, just because The Gastronomer of gas•tron•o•my is featured two minutes in and she’s prettier than old Slick Rick. Click on through to youtube to find the rest of the episode but don’t torture yourself on an empty stomach.
Filed under: Whimsical, stuff | 2 Comments
Tags: antony bourdain, cookery show, cuisine, food, gastronomy, gene wilder, rick stein, vietnam
The Beats (go on)
The Comical Hat and everyone else’s favourite diminutive dj, Jase has a cool website promoting The Beats — a “collective of DJs / Promoters / Designers formed to bring urban and bass heavy music to Saigon, Vietnam” — but also posting lots of vids, photos, tunes, et cetera. Well worth checking out despite the flagrant disregard for capitalisation and apostrophes.
He’s playing with this fella DJ Shortkut in Sunny-side-up Saigon over the weekend. Enjoy.
Filed under: music, stuff | 2 Comments
Tags: dj jase, dj shortkut, saigon, the beats
Quickies
- Pop the Russian Champagne, put on your red shoes and dance the blues… LET’s DANCE! Yes, it looks like it’s safe to do the tango at your local karaoke bar again – My problem is that I can’t sing and dance simultaneously – it’s infuriating, I tells ya, like trying to pat your head and rub your stomach in a circular motion at the same time. How Paula Abdul ever managed it, I’ll never know…
- Now under the microscope are beauty pageants for those who are, shall we say, light in their loafers…
- I heart Jimmy Cliff — always have done, always will. So for the record while I may have quoted David Bowie’s song Let’s Dance in the first bulletin above, should I listen to a song called Let’s Dance, it’s always going to be this one…
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Football gossip
Well, I don’t know if “football crazy” Vietnam has the energy to go through the wringer with this one, but, here we go…
According to this post at Goal.com, and the Mail Online, football veterans Ruud van Horseface and Guti of Real Madrid are transfer targets for T&T Hanoi. Apparently “Spaniard Guti, 32, and Dutch international Van Nistelrooy, 33, have been linked with moves away from the Bernabeu since the arrival of Karim Benzema, Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo…” and of course the logical step down from the Bernabeau stadium and life in Madrid is to admit they’re has-beens and come to Hanoi, if only for the bun cha and wild sessions at the bia hoi.
The preposterous story — picked up by football sites and online papers here already — might be a large clanger. I’ve read previously that the club was trying to get superstars such as Cristiano “Puffball” Ronaldo, Van Horseface and Guti out for one-off exhibition games or “guest appearances” — so perhaps a boo-boo in translation has helped bake this particular cake into a “transfer story”.
Or it could be — as suggested by Vietnam.net – just one big publicity stunt masterminded by the president of T&T Hanoi, Do Quang Hien — who, according to some sources, claims he also fancies Deco might come to the V-League, and has enough bundles of dong in the bank to make it happen — a bit like when Mr. What’s-His-Name from Hoang Anh Gia Lai bragged he could buy Arsenal. A bit of oneupmanship down in the local billionaire’s club, perhaps: – “See that little plucky Portuguese man on TV in the blue shirt and shorts? I could buy him I could…”
I just pity the poor naive fans who might think its true and get their knickers in a twist again — a la the Denilson debacle of early summer, when the Brazilian was escorted by a few-thousand-motorbikes in a cavalcade from Hanoi to Hai Phong (at least he actually came) before disappearing in a puff of smoke three weeks later after playing a paltry 45 minutes.
I mean why not try and size up some more realistic targets: What are Tony Dorigo, Stan Collymore and Eddie McGoldrick up to these days, for instance? Or if you think more exotic players would be up for life in Vietnam, give Rene Higuita and his mate Valderrama a call.
Filed under: Whimsical, links, stuff | 5 Comments
Tags: deco, football, guti, real madrid, ruud van horseface, T&T hanoi, vietnam
AsiaLIFE interview
Oh, the dizzying heights, the terrifying lows and the creamy middles of blogging — one minute we think nobody loves us, the next The Comical Hat’s main honcho Teddy de Burca Jnr. is being interviewed by Asia LIFE magazine from Sunny-side-up Saigon and sure we must be the talk of the town in the offline world by now.
Other blogs mentioned were Ottsworld (a highly professional looking affair – travel/ life), Saigon Nezumi (“rantings by a Japanese Amerasian, former U.S. marine and peace corps volunteer”) Antidote to a Burnout (contemporary Vina-architecture) and AMASC (pictures/ life in general)… all of whom live in TPHCM. The interviews were all done by Liz Ledden who also blogs over here.
Anyway, here’s the Q&A with us… and go snaffle your own copy of the magazine, if you want to read the rest.
Filed under: links, stuff | 1 Comment
Tags: asialife magazine, saigon blogs, the comical hat interview, Vietnam blogs
