StoneSoup

I think that the relatively small number of frequent posters who still populate this board are mostly people who have lived in Thailand longer than ten years - and once you've been here that long, most of the "in your face" sex trade is no longer of much interest. Plus - the costs are WAY up, and the attitudes/attractiveness of the girls substantially down - to the point where it isn't worth the effort in most cases. I haven't barfined a girl in probably six or seven years - and probably never will again. But - I'm still glad that Cowboy and Nana exist - and i do occasionally stop in - mostly to reminisce about days gone by. In "the good old days" most go-go bars were stand-alone operations, who succeeded or failed based on their merits - and where managers and mamasans had almost total leeway to do whatever they thought was best. Think - a small, custom sandwich deli or pizza parlor that would make individual creations to the customer's order. But - nowadays - the go-gos are mostly "franchises" owned by a few big players - who standardize everything according to some plan - and it is boring and repetitive - as per McDonalds or Pizza Hut. What;'s to write about? "Yeah, I went into the McD's at Ploenchit Center. I had my 600th Big Mac. It was pretty much like the last 300 that I had - and indistinguishable from the one I had last week at Onnut McDonalds" Who's going to bother writing - or reading - that report? 'Sorry. Cheers! SS

OK, I feel a bit hesitant to cast dispersions upon a recently departed gent who can't defend himself - but ..... I'm not so sure that Nelson Mandela's saintliness was not substantially fabricated by a white western media that felt guilty. To whit: “I salute the South African Communist Party for its sterling contribution to the struggle for democracy.â€

A holiday tune - very well performed:

OK, this one is really "outside the box" - but, give it a chance - the guy actually has an amazing voice:

http://youtu.be/7z3TPwOT31g

Lou Reed. R.I.P.

Two bad-ass cellos, plus one fine drummer:

Johnny Cash's haunting cover of a song by Nine Inch Nails:

http://youtu.be/0k3cUqI8pIg

Let's see - 'haven't heard any Brazilian hits featuring an accordion lately..... http://youtu.be/hcm55lU9knw There is also an English version: http://youtu.be/CwC5BFX7rqQ

http://youtu.be/L_fCqg92qks

On Twitter, I saw a tweet from @BangkokDan: "My new Thai girlfriend said, "A small penis shouldn't be a problem in a loving relationship." I still wish she didn't have one."

It appears that Whitney Houston was already coming unglued last Thursday - as per photos at: http://www.buzzfeed.com/abrams/whitney-houston-left-hollywood-club-thursday-belli

Ah .... Kimmie sleeps on the wrong side of the dirt. 'Hope he enjoys lava baths with Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, the previous Kim (Il Sung), and the rest of the murderous panoply of asshole dictators.

I heard the same report, and since I live directly opposite Sukhumvit Soi 50 (on Soi 79), I went to take a look. From a point 1.8 km southwest of Sukhumvit, I took the photo shown at: http://twitter.com/#!/StoneSoupBKK/status/129822334596038657/photo/1 This was looking southwest. 500 meters to the west, Khlong Prakhanong water level was absolutely normal - see http://twitter.com/#!/StoneSoupBKK/status/129831847847931904/photo/1 and http://twitter.com/#!/StoneSoupBKK/status/129831048124178432/photo/1

At the moment, there is no flooding in the vicinity of Sukhumvit Soi 4 - or within five km of that soi. Cheers! SS