PeterRS

I wonder how recent this is? In the earlier days of go-go bars there was never any question about whether boy was a bottom or a top. Virtiually all could do both and there was never any secrecy issue. Do you think this is a result of so few Thais in the bars now? Are those from neighbouring countries much more sensitive on the issue?

The Swatch Group of Companies makes 27% of its profits in China. You would surely therefore assume that in its advertising campaigns it would be particularly careful to ensure that Chinese sensibilities are very carefully considered. After I do not know how many executives must have vetted and approved its latest campaign before the marketing department was given the go ahead, unbelievably it actually includes this photograph - Granted the model is cute and he certainly seems Chinese. But for what possible reason these idiotic marketing gurus could have imagined that his increasing the slant of his eyes would appeal in China totally beats me. What message is it supposed to convey? Not only does it have zero appeal, the build up of resentment and anger on China's social media was immediate, so immediate that Swatch imediately withdrew the image. Naturally it apologised - but too late. The damage had been done.

The water was not to his liking!

WIth all respect to @khaolakguy, @rd2077 has made just this one post since his last one in 2017 (assuming the "activity" section of member's pages is accurate, which I feel certain it is). Even then he posted only twice in 2017 with the ones prior to that being in 2015. I'm sure you'll agree there has been a huge change in the Bangkok gay scene over the last 8 years and it is not unreasonable to get some new suggestions. On the other hand, if members like @vinapu take the time to provide very good information, the least @rd2077 should do is write a report on his visit.

I entirely agree. Like @Mavica I visited Moscow and Leningrad three times near the end of the Soviet era when everything was so depressing. Supermarket shelves almost empty. The buffet lunch at the Ukraine Hotel with very little to choose. On my second Moscow visit coming out of the Cosmos hotel I was met by a group of teenagers all wanting the buy the rather old jeans I was wearing. At least they were smiling whereas it seemed most people never did. 10 and 12 years ago I once again visited St. Petersburg and Moscow. The difference was night and day. Apart from the glorious culture and architecture, my friend and I were met with much kindness. The hotel staff could not have been more pleasant, one even giving us tips of places to visit that are not in most guide books. My hair was pretty gray by then and I remember on the train en route to see Catherine's stunning Palace, two University students even got up to give us their seats. In all my years in Bangkok with now even grayer hair, that has happened just once on the Skytrain or subway.

I spent part of my early career in broadcasting with the BBC in London. Those working on a programme had to be in the studio 15 minutes prior to the start of working on the programme even though there might be little actual work to do. We were warned on the first day of training that if we were late once, we would be put on a final warning. Be late twice and we'd be dismissed. On the other hand, we were always paid for those 15 minutes.

I hope you realise - or at least come to realise - that blaming everything on lies produced by western propaganda just falls on deaf ears here. So why repeat it ad nauseam? The more you repeat it, the less credible your arguments become.

It's surely only human nature that everyone has different likes and dislikes, often for no apparent reason. I believe this has become vastly more publicly accentuated as a result of the internet and social media. Years before we could only criticise someone or say bad things to their face and then stand by for the reaction. Now if some Lady Gaga fans don't like Taylor Swift, in the age of the internet and social media they can say whatever they want and in almost all cases there is no comeback. Because they are anonymous! I can't imagine any bad comments from that group concerns Taylor Swift one iota. The same is true in so many different fields. If anyone wants to become a public figure in any public forum, they have to be prepared for the negative as well as the positive. If you get pissed off at being criticised or called out, either you can hit back, or you control your anger management and pay little attention, or you back off and hide. On the other hand, if you believe you have something to say or some tits to flash, just go ahead and do it. Just realise that someone will always be ready to pounce on you whatever it is you do.

Absolute nonsense! Homosexual relations were far from uncommon in pre-revolutionary Russia. In various articles on this Board I have stated that Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky, his brother Modest, the impresario Diaghilev, his protege the greatest male dancer of all time Vaslav Nijinsky, varous choreographers like Leonid Massine were lovers of Diaghilev for some years, as was the famous scenery and costume designer Leon Bakst. Add to that list the artists Serge Sudeikin, Pavel Tchelitchew, Alexander (known better as Sascha) Schneider, Aleksandr Nikolayev and Konstantin Somov . . . Even Grand Duke Konstantin, grandson of Tsar Nicholas 1 and uncle of Tsar Nicholas II was gay. The history of the gay movement in St. Petersburg has been quite well documented. Russians had for a century denied that its most famous composer Tchaikovsky was gay. Yet in 2013 Putin acknowledged on Russian State Channel 1 television that Tchaikovsky was gay and used that as proof that Russia is not anti-gay in spite of his new laws. As Putin stated - "Tchaikovsky was gay - although it's true that we don't love him because of that - but he was a great musician and we all love his music. So what?" Asked whether he would meet members of the gay and lesbian community, Putin said, "I assure you that I work with these people, I sometimes award them with state prizes." So much for @Moses contention that Russia as a country has always been homophobic at the everyday level.

What else wou;d we expect a Putin propagandist to say?

I suppose many of us who think of Terence Stamp remember him as the transexual Bernadette in the 1994 camp movie "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert" in which a group of gay guys cross Australia in a bus. I can still remember him in his breakthrough role as the handsome young Billy Budd in the 1962 movie of that name for which he earned an Oscar nomination. He then became well known as part of the swinging 60s in London often seen dating a number of well known models and actors, including Julie Christie. His 1965 movie as a creepy loner in the psychological thriller "The Collector" who captures a girl and keeps her captive in his basement turned out to be somewhat prophetic as similar kidnappings were later discovered in Austria and the USA. For that role he won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival. But probably most remember him as the supervillain General Zod in some of the early "Superman" movies. Having played the role of Alfie in the play of that name on Broadway, he was considered for the movie role. But the Broadway play flopped and Stamp decided not to take the role. It was then given to his flatmate, Michael Caine. Stamp took part in a number of other notable movies, but more often in secondary roles. The actor died yesterday at the age of 87.

Typical @Moses response. But I agree that if you take the lifespan of the atomic bomb survivors the number is certainly over 300,000. Even in the 1980s, though, the numbers who died as a direct result of the atomic bombs was regarded by all, including the Japanese, as less than 300,000. It is only more recently that those who suffered delayed cancers and other results of the bombings have been taken into account - and rightly so in my view. Yet arguing over numbers of dead in two clear massacres - first in Nanjing and secondly in Hiroshima and Nagasaki - is surely pointless. Both were the ghastly results of war. And in war, both sides resort to desperate measures to win. The difference between Nanjing and the two Japanese cities is that Nanjing had very little to do with the war other than it was Chiang Kai Shek's capital. It was pure barbarity on a huge scale as most of those killed were civilians and the outcome had little impact on any war the Japanese were fighting at the time. Fast forward to 1945 and Japan knew it was on its knees. There are natually opposing camps. The one taught in American schools is that an invasion of the Japanese mainland would quite literally be fought until the last Japanese fell. Thus the bombs shortened the war and resulted in hundreds of thousands of American lives being saved. The other, frequently taght in Japan, is that the bombs were dropped as geopolitical calculation to keep advancing Russia at bay. Russian forces had after all entered the Pacific War and were advancing towards northern Japan. Stalin had ended Russia's neutrality pact with Japan in April and was massing troops towards Japanese held territory. Delaying the end of the war was therefore in its interests. Russia after all invaded Japanese-held Manchuria the same day as the bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. As this view goes, the USA was determined both to put an end to the war and prevent Russian troops from advancing further. Yet still the Russian troops continued their advance through September until the Americans quickly occupied Japan's main islands. The Russians then pulled back.

I think what @vinapu may have heard in January was the annual series of 6 casual Sunday concerts in Lumphini Park presented by the Bangkok Symphony Orchestra. These mix classical and pop. If not, then I do not know of other park concerts there or elsewhere - but there may well be some.

Threads going off on tangents is common on most chat boards like this. But I do think linking Ukraine with the thread about the end of the Pacific War is going too far, and so I'll start this one. @Moses has made comments in the Lest We Forget thread about there being no "forced mobilization" in Russia and all the Russian troops fighting in Ukraine are volunteers. Now that is plain wrong. Every male aged between 18 and 30 has to spend 12 months military service without pay. Avoiding this is a crime. Further, men in that age group cannot obtain work uless that have the papers to prove their mandatory period of military service. Well, if this is not conscription, I wonder what is! Even the Moscow Times calls it "conscription", pointing out on April 2 2025 that 160,000 had been conscripted as servicemen during the first of two annual conscription periods, an increase from the previous year. So what baloney is @Moses spounting now! Putin has alleged that these young men do not serve in the Ukraine War. And who believes that, I wonder? As The Moscow Times points out, some conscripts are drafted to fight in the war by signing up for it at high salaries. Once signed up, they cannot get out of the contract - presumably unless dead! And some basic conscripts who did not sign up have indeed been on the front lines and died there - as also stated by The Moscow Times. We do know that long-term prisoners have been given the opportunity to fight on the front lines in return for their sentences being reduced. Although they are not Russian, North Korea is Russia's ally. We know that last year 10,000 North Koreans joined the front lines. 12 milion 152-millimeter artillery rounds were also sent to bolster Russia's fighting machine. @Moses loves to sweep everything under the carpet as western propsaganda. He cannot do that re the addition of North Korea trooops and aid, for Kim Jong-il actually announced this publicly at the end of April! We know, too, that just before Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov visited North Korea on July 6 and met with both Kim Jong-il and his counterpart Choe Son-hui, North Korea pledged to increase its forces to fight on the Ukraine front lines by a further 25,000 - 30,000. Approximately 4,000 of the original 10,000 have been killed or badly wounded. This is in addiition to the estimated 970,000 Russian troops who have been killed, wounded, captured or are missing in action since the start of the invasion in 2022. https://mwi.westpoint.edu/the-second-north-korean-wave-in-ukraine-what-next-as-pyongyangs-troops-arrive-on-russias-front-lines/ https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/04/02/so-youve-been-drafted-into-the-russian-army-what-does-that-mean-a88569

I think a new thread for Ukraine is called for. There have been valid points made about WWII which I di not believe are associated with Ukraine. So I'll start one!

You compare the readership who 'like' posts my as "subpar to my own intelligence". I suppose you do sometimes joke, for that is not merely a monster of a joke, it is utterly demeaning in the extreme to those who do enjoy my posts. And that is the more so compared to small number who actually bother reading your posts and then downvote them. Reality is clearly not your thing! But you fail to note that it is still a lie and that @Riobard has done nothing to correct it. Funny how a random check of long-term posters shows that all have a specific start date going back to 2006. Well, I suppose that accounts for most of @Riobard's posts being in a fantasy land since no Board existed in 1970

It does not matter. The fact is that @Riobard has a false start date and has not bothered to update it. Corrupt misleading activity!

The Reform UK movement is already on the march. Durham County Council, run since May by the dreadful ultra right-wing Reform UK Party, is withdrawing the funds it has contributed regularly to the annual Gay Pride March from next year. Councillor Grimes (a somewhat appropriate name, I'd have thought) has said "Taxpayers shouldn't be bankrolling it. Durham Country Council isn't an ATM for contested causes." Instead the Council spend its funds on "the services everyone relies on, not on flying the latest alphabet flag for the professional offence industry." Durham Pride 2025

DId you even bother to try the internet? I have not tried any of these which are based in Tokyo. https://www.travelgay.com/tokyo-gay-massage-spas https://www.jptherapist.com/en https://gaymassage.jp/en/venue/show/menssalonfriday https://boyinthai.com/detail/topboy/ http://35.75.66.216/en/venue/show/aktis There are many more if you just do a googe search.

Don't worry. I'll put them in the washing machine.

Another of your non-facts which is untrue. Less than 300,000 in total were killed in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The statistic site has a wide estimte of between 110,000 and 210,000 deaths. Others agree with the higher end - https://www.britannica.com/question/How-many-people-died-in-the-bombings-of-Hiroshima-and-Nagasaki https://www.newsweek.com/how-many-people-died-hiroshima-nagasaki-japan-second-world-war-1522276

Guess what? We have aother Beachlover on the forum. Apart from lying through his teeth trying to make readers believe he was a mid-20s Australian Chinese businessman from Sydney, he was a bored old expat somewhere in or near Pattaya who flooded several boards and led to the demise of one. More to the point, he posted photos of his alleged travels but made certain that anything which would identify him was blocked out. Now @Riobard does likewise. Is Beachlover your cousin?

Well now you reallly have me confused. You wrote - I immediately responded with - In other words, dear @Olddaddy, you have just again referred to Nice Boys. And guess what? So did my response! Now you again state you are talking about Nice Boys. Did I never once refer to Winner Bar. Ooops, no! I think you have your knickers in a bit of a twist! I am working on a hammock on the balcony that might be big enough for two.

Sometimes no alternative but to wait near this time of year.

So your reading is impaired. The Search engine is good. Or are you one who expects everything to be done for you?