PeterRS

Worth a visit every time. There was a problem for a few years prior to covid but oinly because there were so many tour buses packed with Chinese from the mainland seemingly arriving almost every minute. Compared to a decade or more earlier, seeing some of the most popular exhibits - like the exquisite tiny white and green jade cabbage with the two tiny insects on it (as on the cover of the Museum's catalogue) - meant waiting or just barging to the front. Now it is far easier.

Yes, I did realise this. Like Napoleon, one of Hitler's armies got very close to Moscow. Napoleon actually got there but found the inhabitants gone and much of the city on fire. With Remembrance Sunday just a week ago, we should never forget that the Soviets lost more than 25 million people in WWII. They did indeed pay a terrible price.

Apologies - I missed the addition of the earlier half star. The chicken and cashew nuts must be doing a roaring trade.

It's the next big blockbuster from one of the great directors who has not yet won an Oscar. Ridley Scott's 2 hrs 38 minute Napoleon opened in Paris this week to decidedly mixed reviews. The French, perhaps not surprisingly, did not like it much. Le Figaro wrote it should be renamed "Barbie and Ken under the Empire". CG France said there was something "deeply clumsy, unnatural and unintentionally funny" in seeing French soldiers from 1793 shouting "Vive la France" with American acents. American critics have been equally mixed. The entertainment bible Variety claims it is "turgid grime-encrusted spectacle," although adding that it is an undeniably impressive technical achievement. Whoever writes the Roger Ebert column nowadays gives it two stars, saying "it is a deeply shallow screenplay, one that hits major events in the life of its subject with too little passion or purpose." Only the UK critics seem to have taken the film to their hearts - because they beat Napoleon at Waterloo perhaps - the Battle not the London train station? The Guardian calls it "an outrageously enjoyable cavalry charge of a spectacle," while Rupert Murdoch's The Times says it's a"spectacular historical epic." Should be coming to Thailand soon in iMax Theatres and others. https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-67419876

Half star added to 7 becomes 8? What did I miss?

Hero and other massage places would certainly have been a major attraction for guys from other parts of Asia. Many Singaporeans and Malaysians are relatively easy to spot (in terms of conversation) because of the very particular manner of speech and the very common use of some SInglish words. I was only at Hero once because my favourite massage spa ever since the week-end it opened (when I just happened to be staying with friends on Suk 15) was Albury quite nearby. I went frequently until it moved to its location on that street just beyond Emporium and down nearer the Rama 4 end. But I almost always booked my masseur in advance and so rarely mingled with other customers. So I could not offer any conclusion about nationalities. My guess is that of the comments in the extensive Travel Hut section of the Singapore-based Blowing Wind site, by far the majority are about massage and specific masseurs. Very few about gogo bars.

And as one who has been visiting Taipei regularly for decades I echo @Marc in Calif's comments 100%

Well, that sure was one of Hitler's less accurate judgements!

Interesting views - thanks. As for spas, younger Asians are definitely more into spas and dance clubs than they are into offing from bars. They go to bars but more just to see the shows. Not every one of course, but I suspect well over 50%. I haven't been a gogo bar goer for a few years. I wonder what the boys themselves say.

Perfectly understand. But most of the comments I see here from regular posters seem to indicate a greater presence in the gay spots of younger Asians - in my view therefore under 40, although I do accept a 40-year old Asian can sometimes look like a 30 year old foreigner! But I stand by my earlier comments that regrettably I can see no increase in participation by Asians on this site. It will be interesting to find out the views of other regular posters.

Yes, Mr. President! (Although the meaning of "fear" in my post is not quite the same as the use of "fear" in your post 🙏)

Cartoon: Cleveland Plain Dealer

In attempt to halt the surge of asylum seekers fleeing from Russia, Finland has closed 4 of the crossings along its 1,340 km border with Russia. Around 300 have arrived this week alone. No doubt part of the reason is those Russians fearing conscription for the illegal war in Ukraine. Finland has claimed that Russia has deliberately targeted these crossings due to Finand recently joining NATO. TASS, the Soviet New Agency, has quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov as saying - "Russia has never in modern history threatened Finland, we had no reason for any confrontation. Now they have chosen this path. From our point of view, this is a big mistake." Well, it may not have threatened Finland but that did not stop it making Finland part of its Empire for more than a century until 1917. This is perfectly obvious when one just wanders around Helsinki's city centre where you canot miss the Russian-built Uspenski Cathedral to look down over it in 1868. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-67459141

Typically known around the region as a form of hot pot, I believe?

I believe your anecdotes are correct. The question is, though; do any of these young Asians contribute to this Board as members? @macaroni21 clearly beliees they do and i sincerely hope he is correct. Unfortunately I regret that through my observations it is not so and that the younger Asian readership of this Board hardly exists. I WISH I could be wrong, and I would love it if the Moderator would confirm from his membership list that I am indeed wrong. But I fear i am not.

Funny you should mention that. Don't you recall a post I made specifically about the maiden flight of a new Russian-made passenger aeroplane which you trashed by saying it was not new - wrong! - and then turned the thread into a diatribe against both Boeing and Airbus. Threads morph often in weird and wonderful ways. But I note you say nothing about the facal expressions of Putin and his minder 🤣

But as was discussed some weeks ago, this has always been the case with a number of airlines, especially BA. When it was started it was something to do with feeding passengers into long haul services and away from their national airlines. But I cannot believe this is the reason for its being continued today. The Japanese airlines regularly did this back in the 1980s and 1990s. Hong Kong to JFK via Tokyo return was often 40% or more cheaper than just Tokyo to JFK in all classes. And in those days you could tear up the HKG/NRT coupons without that affecting the rest of the flight - which of course one can not do today.

Funny how if anyone is terrified it is clearly President Putin. After all, he is guarded day and night and travels on his own special luxurious armoured bulletproof train. All of his residences are lilnked by railway lines enabling him to reach them on this train. With the invasion of Ukraine, he is afrad to travel by plane. Former bodyguards for Russian President Vladimir Putin have gained immense power in exchange for their unquestioned loyalty. Many have also accumulated vast wealth, exemplifying how Russia’s newly ascendant class has exploited a system meant to protect the old. An investigation by Novaya Gazeta, in partnership with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, shows who paid the price: more than 1,100 ordinary people who had worked for decades on a giant poultry plant outside Moscow. Some were decorated World War II veterans whom the Soviet Union had promised lifetime employment and pensions. But in the newly independent Russian Federation, there can be no such guarantees. During the 1990s, these workers say, a small clique of powerful businessmen and criminals used manipulation, forgery, intimidation, and even beatings to seize their land. The dozens of hectares were then divided into smaller plots and eventually doled out to a cohort newly empowered by Putin: officers in the Federal Guard Service and the Presidential Security Service. The above is part of a long article pubished by Novaya OCCRP, Russia in 2019. In the light of @Moses comments on the looks of those around Biden, who looks terrified here - both men! Putin and Viktor Zolotov, the Director of the National Guard! LOL Photo Credit: The Kremlin https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a42930300/putin-russian-bulletproof-train/ https://www.europeanpressprize.com/article/putins-bodyguards/

Going through some files of old, interesting photos, I came across this one. I have no idea where or when it was taken although it is clearly in Japan. And it reminded me of a bar I occasionally frequented in the Shinjuku ni-chome gay district, although we are talking a good 30 years and more ago. Apart from the main streets in the area, there was a small one linking two others that had a dog leg in the middle. In that little linking street there were several bars including one which only had room to seat a few patrons at the bar and a couple of tables. Apart from it being a location where porn movies were made after hours, sometimes with a few customers seated a couple of guys would end up naked and be going at each other on the bar top. Sometimes the guys were young and cute. At others, less so. This was no go-go bar or sauna or hatten-ba - just one of the normal tiny-size Japanese bars, some of which have or had themes. The fact that this occasionally had "performances" seemed to be no big deal because there was never any kind of rush to come in to watch it. The only people interested seemed to be the mama-san and those actually sitting there when it all began to happen. Although this was a bar primarily for Japanese custmers, I - and other occasional foreigners - was never stopped. With around 400 bars in ni-chome in those days of which foreigners were welcome at probably not many more than a dozen, I have no idea what might have gone on in other bars. Would it happen today? I very much doubt it, but there is always a lot going on in Japan which foreigners know little about.

If that is the case, then I gladly acknowledge and thank him for his contribution. But is this in fact the case? It may be, but I was under the impressions that it is the gaybuttonthai board which has several times called for his assistance and which I believe @Gaybutton will no longer attempt to resolve re any future issues without having them sorted out by @Moses. Perhaps the moderator here can advise us.

I hope some others may wish to post vides of their favourite classical singers here. One of the excellent features of this Board is the wide range of topics it permits even though there is no specific connection to gay guys and gay sex. But many gay men and women do have a special love of opera. Two more from me - and both happen to be sopranos. When I first heard the von Karajan recording of Die Walkure way back in the 1970s, I was blown away by the crystalline purity of Gundula Janowitz' voice in the role of Sieglinde. This is a short aria from Part 1 of Haydn's masterpiece The Creation recorded in the 1960s with Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic. (He made a second recording quite a few years later which is nowhere near as good). In May 2009 I had the great joy of being present at the quite glorious Haydnsalle in Eisenstadt where Haydn premiered most of his works (although not The Creation) for a special performance of the work on the exact date and time of his death 200 years earlier. Ms. Janowitz was by then retired and the soprano did not quite match her performance. But it was a perfect morning and an amazing experience! The other is in my view one of the greatest voices of the 20th century - and sadly very underrated. I believe this is because, unlike most opera stars today, Dame Margaret Price decided to spend most of her time in very few Opera Houses - Cologne, Munich and San Francisco - with only occasional appearances elsewhere. Initially known as a Mozart singer she took on heavier roles as her career progressed. When the great conductor Carlos Kleiber was finally persauded to record Tristan und Isolde in 1982 with the Staatskapelle Dresden he told the Deutsche Grammophon producers that he did not want a heavy soprano voice as isolde. He wanted a lighter, more pure sound. Having worked with Dame Margaret in Munich he wanted her, even though it was a role she could never sing on stage. Often regarded as the finest conductor of the 20th century, Kleiber was adored by his musicians and singers and loathed by managements - because he was by nature a very difficult man. He proved this again as he walked out of the Tristan recording sessions vowing never to return and to withhold his permission for DGG to issue anything from the sessions. Fortunately DGG had enough recorded material either completed or from rehearsals. The engineers were able to piece together a complete recording which was issued a year later. Kleiber dd not sue! In terms of the orchestral playing, Kleiber's conducting, the orchestral playing and Dame Margaret's singing, this version of Tristan is one that most Wagner lovers treasure and the closing "Liebestodt" is wonderful.

Having proved that he knows little about the aircraft business, @Moses now sets himself up as some form of amateur psycholoigist. Clearly time he gave up. Better he posts on his own board Sawatdee in future where he is not likely to get criticism for whatever silly things he wants to post about.

The heyday of the castrato voice in opera was the first half of the 18th century. Mozart never intended Cherubino to be sung by anyone other than a soprano or mezzo-soprano female voice. The castrato voice was becoming less popular by the time Mozart's genius was recognised. In his early operas written before he was 25, he certainly did include roles for soprano or contralto castrati. Therafter he only used one once again in his last opera Clemenza di Tito. He never used any in arguably his best-known and finest operas: the three with libretti by Lorenzo da Ponte - Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni and Cosi fan tutte - or in Magic Flute. I suspect this is because by this time he had become far more aware of the vital importance of the dramatic action happening on stage. The voices in his early operas included both soprano and contralto castrati. Nowadays some of the soprano castrato roles are at the very highest range for a counter-tenor and so are almost always performed by female sopranos. Incidentally, the famous motet Esultate Jubilate was composed when Mozart was 17 for the celebrated castrato Rauzzini. The counter-tenor voice did not gain popularity until around the mid-20th century with Russell Oberlin in America and Alfred Deller in the UK leading the way. Essentially this is a falsetto voice. All males can create such a falsetto sound but it requires years of technical and vocal training to develop the sound, to make it 'even' and develop character if you wish to become a professional singer.

Those of us interested in opera or just the vocal arts will certainly have their favourite singers. The discussion in the Boy's Penis thread concentrated on castrati and mezzo-soprano voices. So I want to add a couple of favourites of my own, to add to the wonderful Teresa Berganza who passed away a couple of years ago. I had seen her as Cherubino in Salzburg and also at the Edinburgh Festival where a few years later she had a stunning triumph in her debut in the role of Carmen. But sometimes we come across voices that we have not heard before and which make us wish we had. During the pandemic I heard one which I have raved about ever since. The Staatsoper in Munich was streaming a lot from their back catalogue. One was Gluck's Orfeo from around 20 or so years ago. I had never before heard of the Bulgarian mezzo Vesselina Kasarova who sang the title role. In her mid-20s she had won one of the world's top singing competitions and immediately been engaged by the Vienna State Opera. She was to sing in all the world's top opera houses including the Royal Opera in London and New York's Met and at many of the major Festivals. Yet she did not want to spend her whole life singing and preferred to dedicate part of it to helping her husband and raising their son. Some years ago she returned to Bulgaria to take charge of the Opera in Sofia. Now aged 58 she has returned to the opera and recital stage. Clearly she is not only a stunning singer, she is also a consummate actress. I'm going to add two clips from this Munich Orfeo. I believe the version is that arranged by Berlioz who absolutely adored Gluck's operas and was to become his champion in France. The first is the aria at the end of Act 1. This is a regie-theater style production - i.e. modern stage directors who want to say something, often totally at odds with the music. At least this aria is sung in front of the curtain. I have heard this sung by several mezzos including the great Dame Janet Baker. But none comes anywhere close to this version. Even Dame Janet sounds slow and rather 'heavy' when she sings it. The second excerpt is arguably Gluck's most famous aria. It takes place just after Orpheus has been down to Hades and led Euridyce back to earth. But he forgot the instruction that he must never look back or he will never see her again. Overcome with emotion, he does just that and Euridyce is gone. Back on earth he wonders what life will be like without her. Often known as "Che Faro" it became popular in the UK in the 1950s thanks to the great English contralto Kathleen Ferrier. Ferrier had a unique voice and after WWII her career took off spectacularly. In 1953 she gave the first of what were to be four performances of Orfeo in English at the Royal Opera House. Not known to most of her colleagues was that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer some months earlier and had undergone a mastectomy. Although the first performance was a major success, she had been physically weakened by prolonged radiation treatment. At the second performance her femur partially disintegrated. With the help of other cast members, she managed to complete the performance before being rushed to hospital. She died later in the year at the early age of just 41. The public was shocked at the news and tributes flowed. Perhaps the greatest came from one of the top conductorsof the age, Bruno Walter. He said, "The greatest thing in music in my life has been to have known Kathleen Ferrier and Gustav Mahler - in that order." Many rushed to purchase her recording of this aria which she had made some years before the staged performances. And one last video. Talking with a conductor a good 15 years ago, he suggested I try and hear the Polish coloratura contralto Ewa Podles, another singer of whom I had heard nothing. He had just made a recording with her and spoke glowingly of her three octave voice. Since then I have found several you tube videos and curse myself for not having mde more of an effort to hear her. somewhere. She is now retired. This is the same first Act aria from Orfeo in a concert performance recorded in 1994. It is very different from that of Kasarova, but equally mesmerising for what she does with the voice.

I'm going to add three more vdo clips of extraordinary female voices, but in order not to derail this thread too much, I have added them in a new thread under Theatre, Art, Movies and Literature.