BANISHING BOREDOM
Bloggery on music, books, films, travel, wildlife and dark matters.
The Anti-Aging Guide to Travelling Gracefully
Travel as an anti-aging agent is a persistent theme in this absorbing memoir. Throughout her witty and adeptly written travel memoirs, Janet Brown has taken the adage that “life is a journey” to a multifaceted extreme. In previous books, she has led readers through...
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Different Drummers book review: The Offbeat Generation of Bangkok
Meet some of the expat authors, musicians and a painter who have helped to make Bangkok into an international hideaway for mavericks and outliers with a creative bent. Review by Jim Algie One of the first expats I met in Bangkok was a fellow teacher at my school. He...
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When Punk Became Middle Aged: From Outliers to Insiders
Looking back at the 40th anniversary of punk in 2016 through interviews with members of the Damned and Buzzcocks, and a rundown of main events, such as the son of the Sex Pistols’ former manager burning some US$7 million of punk memorabilia. By Jim Algie To all...
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Behind the Crime Scenes with the Bestselling Bangkok 8 Author John Burdett
Before publishing his breakthrough book Bangkok 8, and five later entries in the series, John Burdett lived a life of novel-worthy plot twists among hippies in Europe, the criminal underclass in London, and the Hong Kong elite. By Jim Algie Of all the paths that lead...
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Bangkok Expat Tales #1: The Infamous Farang Fights with Lucifer’s Cabbie
Of all the Bangkok expat tales of the 1990s, this anecdote of a Western guy who dared to mouth off and take on an abusive Thai taxi driver is the stuff of urban legends What resident or visitor has not at one time or another wanted to smack or berate a Thai cabbie for...
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Notes on the Late Leonard Cohen and Meeting Him in Montreal
Before I was born my mom used to go and see Leonard Cohen do poetry readings in Montreal in the late 1950s. So I grew up with his novels and poetry collections on our bookshelves. She did not listen to his music though, so that epiphany had to wait until 1985 when I’d...
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