On November 24 it’s time for “Space Spiritual Soul” with Clokue, Honon, Flex Off aka Greig Smith, Frozensmusics aka Tum Monotone, and Cut The Crab at Live Cube, Death of Heather, Govinda Bhasya Khana Bierbood, Jinta and Abstraction XL at Thonglor Art Space and DJ Sangka Si and Toimi Tytti at 12×12 Bar.

The festival wraps with “Psych Trip” at Case Space Revolution on November 25 with Scout Land, Ototobi Zero, Rendezvous, Kagelow, and DJ Maftsai, and at De Commune with live visual Yellaban featuring Stylish Nonsense, Ugly Mountain, Desktop Error, Chladni Chandi, DJ Justin Mills and Acid Mothers Temple Official & The Melting Paraiso UFO.

Tickets are Bt2,500 and available at the door of all venues.

An enchanting evening

French-Thai classical singer Yves Baron, aka Le Tenor, performs live from Thursday to Sunday at Cascade, Amari Watergate Bangkok throughout November.

Enjoy smooth tunes in a laid back street cafe atmosphere with your favourite beverage in hand while snacking on baked goods, deli items, and delicious appetisers.

Admission is free from 7 to 10pm.

Game for a laugh

British comedian Carey Marx will be sharing the stage with South African comics Tsitsi Chiumya and Dustin Moore for a night of laughter at The Westin Grande Sukhumvit on November 17.

Winner of Best International Show at the New Zealand Comedy Festival and Leicester Comedy Festival Best Show nominee, Marx has established himself firmly as one of the top standup comedians from the British circuit. His comedy show is blends his dark humour with mischief and glee.

Chiumya will also be sharing the laughter with his  “awkwardly relatable stories.”

Early bird tickets are Bt500, Bt800, and Bt1,400 for VIP including freeflow drinks for two hours, meet & greet with the comedians, and the best seats in the house. The show starts at 8.

Get your tickets at http://www.TicketFlap.com/bkkcomedycareymarx.

Reflections on life

Spanish artist Joan Cornella is back in Bangkok for his second solo exhibition, “Happy Endings” showing at Woof Pack on Saladaeng Soi 1 until December 3.

Cornella brings his imagination to life through his art, a blend of cynicism and humour. This exhibition features more than 60 pieces, many of them never before shown. Books, tshirts, and canvas bags signed by the artist will also be on sale.

Wood Pack is open from 11am to 10pm and admission is Bt200.

For more information and updates, visit https://joancornella.net.

HER ROYAL Highness Princess Sirivannavari Nariratana is inviting all women to “find their inner princess” with a set of Shiseido cosmetics on which she’s collaborated.

The Shiseido x Sirivannavari Princess Hanayaka Collection features beauty products for the woman who is vivacious and ravishingly beautiful – just like a storybook princess.

Princess Sirivannavari was on hand at Bangkok’s Siam Hotel last week when the Japanese unveiled the collection it created in conjunction with her fashion house, named simply Sirivannavari.

She dedicated more than two years to planning, supervising and adding the final touches to the collection. On behalf of Sirivannavari, where she is creative director, she selected the colour schemes and textures and even designed the packaging, adapting drawings from her previous clothing lines to create elegant and graceful new looks.

The colours are the Princess’ favourites and appear on products that are not only beautiful but also easy to apply.

“Sirivannavari has always wanted to create beauty products that can fully answer the needs of women in Asia,” she said. “This is also what Shiseido wants as a premium makeup brand that understands the needs of Asian women well. That’s how our collaboration started. I’m delighted that we both share the same intentions, which is to create what will enable the beauty of women in Asia to glow from inside and out naturally.”

Princess Sirivannavari said she set out to create beauty products that were “compact and convenient to apply”.

“The colours had to be beautiful and highly flexible for various combinations of mix and match for different occasions, from a daytime natural look to nighttime glamour. And the texture must match different colour combinations.

“I worked with the graphics inspired by Sirivannavari collections to design the packaging. Drawings of rice ears, bees and lovebirds form the main designs. When combined with a Japanese touch, the lines become perfect for the packaging.”

Shiseido (Thailand) managing director Tatsuki Nagao said it was a great honour for the company to work with the Princess.

The collection is named “Princess Hanayaka”, he said, because it refers to “a woman who is vivacious and as ravishingly beautiful as a princess”.

There are four beauty products covering Natural Looks and Glam Looks.

The Eye Colour Palette has eight shades, including four “natural” shades in the golden-brown of rice ears and four “glam” tones called Silver Midnight Blue.

The Face Illuminator and Blush Palette has a grapefruit-colour blush to match the paler Wild Lily highlighter for work days, while a coral-tone blush pairs with a gold highlighter to brighten the cheeks for subtle, glamorous evening looks.

There are two lipsticks, one in crimson red and the other in nude brown, with a semi-matte texture and soft satin touch.

The case features the main designs given a neo-classical touch. Princess Sirivannavari also designed the gold-embossed “S” logo on the makeup palettes, the letter signifying both Sirivannavari and Shiseido.

Well-known makeup artists Puvasa Pornthamachat and Kamol Chatrasen showed attendees at the event how to get the best looks from the Princess Hanakaya Collection and shared their inspirations and tips.

– The Princess Hanayaka Collection is available at 40 Shiseido counters across Thailand, the Sirivannavari pop-up store at King Power Rang Nam and other |branches, and online through http://www.Central.co.th.

– The price range is Bt2,500 to Bt3,500.

It edged out “MeToo” and “whitewash” to top the list of 10 new and notable words that “reflect an ever-evolving culture and the preoccupations of those who use it”, Collins said.

The wider 10 words of the year include ones inspired by Brexit, environmental concerns and the 2018 football World Cup.

“Single-use” describes items “whose unchecked proliferation are blamed for damaging the environment and affecting the food chain”, said Collins.

It said public awareness of plastic adrift in the oceans had led to a global campaign to reduce the use of once-only items.

Another environment-related word on the list was plogging: a Scandinavian fitness craze that combines jogging with picking up litter.

“Vegan”, a person who refrains from using any animal products, has become an increasingly mainstream lifestyle choice in recent years and so gets on the list.

“This has been a year where awareness and often anger over a variety of issues has led to the rise of new words and the revitalisation and adaptation of old ones,” said Helen Newstead, Collins’ head of language content.

“It’s clear from this year’s words of the year list that changes to our language are dictated as much by public concern as they are by sport, politics, and playground fads.”

Fancy flossing with gammon?

“MeToo”, the movement seeking to expose and eradicate sexual harassment, makes the top 10.

Brexit, the 2016 word of the year, has inspired two new words on this year’s list: “backstop” and “gammon”.

“Backstop” is defined as a system that may be used if no other arrangement is made.

The derogatory use of the word “gammon” — a type of cured pork — has gained popularity as a term of abuse directed at the most reactionary pro-Brexit supporters, who are typically white, male and middle-aged.

“Whitewash” — casting a white actor as an ethnic minority character” — also makes the list.

There’s a new term for manipulating others, often romantic partners, by continually feeding them false information until they doubt their sanity: “gaslight”.

From the World Cup, “VAR”, an abbreviation of video assistant referee, makes the list.

The final word on the list is the “floss” dance craze.

“The words in this year’s list perhaps highlight a world at extremes — at one end, serious social and political concerns, and at the other, more light-hearted activities,” said Newstead.

The list will join the online version of the dictionary and be considered for inclusion in future print editions.

So it came as a surprise when the founder of Microsoft brandished a jar of human waste at a forum on the future of the toilet in Beijing on Tuesday.

The stunt was an effort to draw attention to a problem affecting developing countries around the world: not enough toilets.

“In places without sanitation you have got way more than that,” Gates said, pointing to the feces inside the clear canister resting on a table.

“And that’s what kids when they are out playing, they are being exposed to all the time, and that’s why we connect this not just with quality of life, but with disease and death and with malnutrition,” he told attendees.

The billionaire has used part of his considerable fortune to provide clean, comfortable sanitation facilities to the nearly half of the world’s population that suffers without.

“When you think of things that are basic right up there with health and enough to eat, you think that having a reasonable toilet certainly belongs on that list,” Gates said.

Gates has previously used shock tactics to draw attention to his disease-battling efforts.

In 2009, he loosed mosquitoes at a Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) Conference in California to make a point about the deadly sting of malaria — waiting a minute or so before assuring the audience the liberated insects were disease-free.

Gates was in Beijing on Tuesday for the “Reinvented Toilet Expo”, a forum hosted by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation showcasing various cutting edge toilet technology in lieu of sewers, making them easier and cheaper to install the devices.

The world’s number two economy is in the midst of a drive to improve its notoriously malodorous bathrooms, a campaign President Xi Jinping has dubbed the “toilet revolution.”

“China has made great progress in improving health and sanitation for millions of people,” Gates said.

“China has an opportunity to launch a new category of innovated non-sewered sanitation solutions that will benefit millions of people worldwide.”

Six years ago, a doctor told Londoner Julie Creffield that she was too fat to run a marathon. She had none of it, and proved him wrong.

On Sunday, the 40-year-old mother of one took part in her fourth marathon – in New York “a dream come true,” she says.

The professional life coach began her running career began in 2010, when she took part in a short race and came last.

“When I got to the finish line, there was no finish line left, everybody had left and gone home,” she laughs, dressed in black |leggings and a pink hoodie, her blonde hair in a pony tail after a quick jog in Central Park.

She remembers feeling “very embarrassed and thinking maybe I shouldn’t be a runner, maybe I am not welcome in the running world.” So she decided to inspire other women of a similar shape.

“That’s when I started writing the blog,” called “Too Fat to Run,” she says.

The London Olympics later inspired her to run her first marathon.

“I’ve done maybe 30 half marathons and ultra marathons and triathlons… anything that kind of challenges me,” she says.

“For me it’s about inspiring women of all shapes and sizes to give it a go.

“I feel quite passionate about larger women running, because we weren’t very visible in the running world. When you think runner, you think tall, slim, fast, and lots of people want to run for lots of other reasons.”

Creffield, who says she does not know how much she weighs, wears a dress size 18 in Britain, which is a 16 in the United States.

It is in Central Park, where the autumn leaves are already turning yellow, that Creffield said she hoped to cross the finish line along with the more than 50,000 other runners taking part from around the world.

The average time to complete the New York marathon, which takes in the city’s five boroughs, is four hours, 35 minutes.

Last year’s winner, Geoffrey Kamworor of Kenya, romped home in two hours, 10 minutes, 53 seconds.

Creffield calculates that it’ll take her between six and a half, and seven and a half hours. She’ll run as much as she can, and walk when she needs a breather.

People take up running for all kinds of reasons, she says, not only to lose weight or get in shape, but to counter depression, to socialise or even carve out a little me time.

Although she has been heckled and insulted for running, Creffield stops at nothing and is confident that little by little, attitudes are changing.

“I’ve had things thrown from car windows at me when I train. I got heckled a lot of the time. It tends to be either children or grown men. Sometimes people shout things they think are motivating, but they are not,” she says.

“Because you’re big, they think you’re new to running and they shout things like ‘it gets easier!’ and I’m like ‘no it doesn’t, I’ve been running for 15 years and this is my pace,’“ Creffield smiles.

“There are so many more things that define us as women than what we look like.”

Although some people want marathons reserved only for elite runners, a growing majority believe they should be open to as wide a pool of people as possible.

“Our mission at New York Road Runners is to help and inspire people through running, regardless of their age or ability. Everyone is welcome,” explains Chris Weiller, spokesman for the group that organises the marathon.

Developed and published by the Singapore-headquartered GoGame, Disney Epic Quest is the first Disney mobile game to debut in Southeast Asia.

The free-to-play game will be available on both Android and iOS devices and will launch across the region in 2019.

“At the heart of everything we do at Disney is great storytelling, and we draw upon the most beloved stories and characters from Disney, Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars to create high-quality interactive game experiences for fans of all ages,” says Dan Dossa, general manager of Consumer Products Commercialisation for Walt Disney South Asia.

Disney Epic Quest is an action role-playing mobile game that brings together a line-up of characters from “Big Hero 6”, “Pirates of the Caribbean”, “The Incredibles”, “Wreck-It-Ralph” and “Mickey Mouse & Friends”. Disney Epic Quest also marks the debut of original costumes for Mickey, Donald and Goofy, created exclusively for the game.

The game is easy to play but hard to master. Casual players will enjoy the simple hack-and-slash nature of combat, while dedicated fans will enjoy that each Disney and Pixar character in the game has been thoughtfully designed to be as unique as their personalities in the movies.

The elaborate character designs, as well as the potential combinations of character classes, levels, gears, and skills means that there are plenty of opportunities for players to grow their individual Disney and Pixar characters, and customise their squad of characters. Players can also engage in multiplayer co-operative battles in at least two different game modes. Players can invite their friends to play together, or make use of the game’s matchmaking system to meet new friends for real-time play. Future plans also include a competitive player vs player (PvP) mode.

The game will be available in English, Bahasa Indonesia, Simplified Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese.

IF YOU’RE looking for a phone that meets your needs and looks good but won’t break the bank, you’ll probably be interested in the Nokia 6.1 Plus from HMD Global.

A sleek and capable smartphone, the Nokia 6.1 Plus has a strong aluminium body with glass cover at the back to add a glossy look.

Although its body is more compact than sleek, the smartphone comes with a large 5.8-inch display with high resolution of 1080×2280 pixels in 19:9 display ratio. And the display is protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 3.

The high-res display is bright making the phone a good device for viewing photos and watching HD movies, such as those provided by TrueID TV app and iflix app. During the test, I enjoyed watching movies from these two apps.

And although Nokia 6.1 plus is not powered by a superfast flagship CPU, it is still capable and has all the attributes you expect of a good smartphone.

It is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon octa-core processor running at 1.8 GHz and equipped with 4 gigabytes of working memory or RAM. It uses 64 GB e-MMC 5.1 storage, which is expandable by a microSD card by up to 400GB. It runs on latest Android 8.1.0 operating system.

During the test, I didn’t feel that its touch screen and menus were lagging but instead found them responsive.

The Nokia 6.1 Plus supports 4G LTE Cat 4 data connection. I tested it on TrueMove H’s LTE network and the connection was fast.

I used Ookla Speedtest app to measure the speed and found that it achieved a download speed of 54 Mbps and upload speed of 29.8 Mbps.

Moreover, Nokia 6.1 Plus has fast Wi-Fi 802.11ac connection and the latest Bluetooth 5.0 connection.

The cameras are good too, and it uses a dual system for the rear camera for creating bokeh effect.

The rear camera has a 16MP sensor with f/2.0 lens and 5MP black-and-white sensor with f/2.4 lens. The 5MP camera is used for providing data for creating the blurred background or bokeh effect.

To capture outstanding portraits with bokeh effect, you must use the Live Bokeh mode, which provide a slide bar to adjust the level of blurring.

There is also auto mode, which is called Photo mode. Here you can use the dual-sight Bothie function in which the camera uses both rear and front lenses to capture photos from both sides at the same time.

You can have both front and rear cameras capture photos that are stacked– the front camera at the bottom and rear camera at the top, assuming you are shooting in vertical format. The rear camera will appear on the left and the front camera at the right in horizontal shots.

The Bothie function can also be applied to video shooting.

The Nokia 6.1 Plus also comes with 16MP f/2.0 front camera for selfies.

I found the cameras captured good quality photos when there was enough light. The bokeh effect could be achieved easily with pleasing results.

Nokia 6.1 Plus comes with fingerprint reader for securely unlocking your phone. It also supports face unlocking. I tried both features and they worked well.

The phone is available in three colour options – Gloss Black, Gloss White and Gloss Midnight Blue – and retails for Bt8,990.

Key Specs

Network: LTE Cat 4, |WCDMA, GSM

OS: Android Oreo 8.1

Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 octa-core 1.8 GHz

Memory: 4GB LPDDR4

Storage; 64GB eMMC 5.1

Display: 5.86-inch IPS display with 1080×2280 pixels, protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3

Cameras: Rear: Dual Main: |16 MP AF, f2.0, Dual second: |5 MP, BW/FF/f2.4; Front: |16 MP, f2.0

Wireless connectivity: WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac; Bluetooth 5.0; GPS/AGPS+GLONASS

Sensors: Ambient light sensor, Proximity sensor, Accelerometer (G-sensor), |E-compass, Gyroscope, Fingerprint Sensor (on the back)

Battery: 3060 mAh

Dimensions: 147.2 x 70.98 x 7.99mm

Weight: 151g

KING CHUALONGKORN returned from each of his three visits to Java between 1871 and 1901 with warmer bonds to the Dutch who controlled the land that became Indonesia – and also with 307 samples of batik redolent with imagery of Javanese culture.

Now that private collection of King Rama V, which has been stored in the Treasury of the Inner Court of the Grand Palace since his death in 1910, is being publicly displayed for the first time.

The exhibition “A Royal Treasure: The Javanese Batik Collection of King Chulalongkorn of Siam” will remain on view at the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles until the spring of 2021.

The batik collection of King Chulalongkorn from the central Javanese principalities of Yogyakarta and Surakarta allures with distinctive shades of blue and brown and even some “forbidden motifs” reserved for the nobility.

Space limitations mean the displays will be rotated throughout the course of the exhibition. To begin with, there are 37 pieces to see, including sarung, a short, tubular hip wrap; kain panjang, a longer hip wrap; ikat kepala, a head cloth; and examples of batik patterns called contoh pola.

Museum curator Sarttarat Muddin says the facility received permission from His Majesty the late King Bhumibol in 2014 “to research and exhibit this extraordinary collection”.

“It took almost four years to do the research and prepare the show because batik is not our typical textile and the patterns in this collection are quite different from what Thais wear in the South,” she says.

The varieties of batik designs in shades and motifs reflect multicultural societies of Java’s north coast and west.

Sarttarat and co-curator Dale Carolyn Gluckman visited Indonesia several times to meet experts at the Jakarta Textile Museum and also went to the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam to see its trove, which is believed to have originated at the same workshop in Yogyakarta where much of the royal collection was produced.

King Chulalongkorn was only 18 when he made his first and only official visit to Java in 1871 – the first time a reigning Siamese monarch had ventured outside the country. He was exploring ways to modernise Siam with Western innovations, such as the railway connecting Batavia (present-day Jakarta) with Semarang in Java.

He spent 15 days visiting both these places. Semarang was an international trading port where Carolina Josephina von Franquemont ran a batik atelier that produced hybrid designs with geometric shapes in vertical panels and pictorial subjects that became standard features of coastal batik. The King returned with five samples.

Sarttarat points out the Garden of Eden imagery with grapevines and a snake on a tree branch, a Chinese butterfly motif signifying longevity and love, and a centipede symbolising protection.

The batiks from Carolina Josephina von Franquemont workshop in Semarang 

King Chulalongkorn’s returns to Java in 1896 and 1901 were unofficial visits. On the earlier stay, convalescing after an illness, he toured Yogyakarta, Surakarta, Cirebon, Indramayu and Garut among other cities, producing the memoir “A Journey of Over Two Months to Java”.

“There is no better way to recover than going to a new, peaceful place away from problems,” he wrote. “It was a good opportunity to make new friends because Java is like visiting a neighbour. Social contact is good for both countries.”

It’s presumed he acquired at Banyamas in Central Java two pieces of batik in deep red and dark blue, from the workshop of Catharina Carolina van Oosterom, which feature more geometric shapes along with jamblang fruit and Art Nouveau motifs.

Two pieces from Banyamas are deep red and dark blue, with patterns incorporating geometric shapes, jamblang fruit and Art Nouveau motifs.

A batik sample from Lasem, also in central Java, boasts a unique red hue and patterns heavily influenced by Chinese culture, the town having been the landing point for Java’s first ethnic Chinese settlers.

Sarttarat notes the tigers, a phoenix, a unicorn with a dragon’s head and a lantern within the pattern and the Western lace-like effect along the bottom.

“The distinctive red dye comes from rak yor [the root of Morinda citrifolia] and from the minerals in the water only found in Lasem,” she says.

A batik from Lasem presents Chinese landscape of plants and birds and butterflies in great delicacy.

Pekalongan on the north coast had workshops producing batik in different styles, this being a melting pot of Javanese, Chinese, European and Muslim settlers. King Chulalongkorn didn’t visit Lasem or Pekalongan but probably acquired samples of their art in the city of Bandung.

Sarttarat explains that AJF Jans, the Dutch owner of a workshop in Pekalongan, was among the first to sign batik and the royal collection has several pastel-coloured batiks marked “J Jans”, mingling Western notions such as floral bouquets, bows, cupids and wreaths.

The batik designs from Pekalongan and Garut reflects muticultural societies.

Garut in West Java was famous for gumading, a pale-yellow ground colour, that is said to resemble the flesh of an almost ripe mango and the design elements such as garuda’s wing reflects the influence of central Javanese courts.

Batiks from Surakarta were typically yellow-brown or dark blue with tiny motifs, while those from Yogyakarta were predominantly chocolate brown or lighter blue.

Favourite motifs in the Surakarta court were elephants representing royal power andsemen – stylised flora and fauna – a name derived from semi, meaning “to sprout” or “grow”. In Yogyakarta, bolder geometric patterns were preferred, as were designs inspired by Hindu cosmology – phra sumeru, garuda and naga.

Batiks from Surakarta were characterised by yellow-brown and dark blue.

“The designs also reflect the long and complex cultural and political history of Java,” says Sarttarat. “There were forbidden motifs that were exclusively reserved for the nobility, such as udan liris and parang rusak [a sword-like pattern].”

The royal collection has 43 pieces from Yogyakarta produced by the Lawick van Pabst studio His Majesty visited in 1896 and again in 1901. The pieces are technically superb, with crisp patterns drawn in wax on both sides of the cloth and with exceptionally deep yet bright natural indigo and warm saga brown.

Some of the batiks brought back were tagged in Thai, English and sometimes Dutch, indicating the origin, pattern name, price and function. Some are hand-signed “W v Lawick v Pabst”.

The royal collection has 43 pieces of Yogyakarta batik produced by the famous Lawick van Pabst atelier, which His Majesty visited in 1896 and again in 1901.

Shortly after the King’s 1896 visit, the Dutch government asked Pabst to create 175 patterns for the Dutch colonial pavilion at the 1900 Paris World Exhibition. Most of these are now stored at the Tropenmuseum.

“We went to Amsterdam to compare our Pabst pieces with those of the museum and found its sampling size to be 100×100 centimetres, whereas most of ours are sarung and kain panjang ranging from 100 to nearly 300cm, with full patterns that are extremely valuable,” says Sarttarat.

The exhibitions includes videos made from vintage films, including the state visits of King Prajadhipok in 1929 and Their Majesties King Bhumibol and Queen Sirikit in 1960. One kain panjan batik even features a “Sirikit pattern” – named for the Queen.

The Sirikit batik pattern from Yogyakarta was named to honour Her Majesty Queen Sirikit during her state visit with His Majesty King Bhumibol in 1960.

“President Sukarno asked an artisan to create a highly crafted batik with special pattern dedicated to the Queen and presented it to her as a gift,” Sarttarat explains. “The floral pattern probably represents the beauty of the Queen and it’s now one of the batik designs available on the market. What we have on display isn’t the one presented to the Queen – we received this one from the Sekar Jaged Batik Association of Yogyakarta.”

Visitors can try on Javanese costumes in varied batik patterns.

Visitors to the exhibition can also get hands-on with batik, take selfies in front of a photographic display of the seven cities where King Chulalongkorn’s batiks originated, and try on various Javanese batik costumes.

A WHIRLWIND OF PATTERNS

“A Royal Treasure: The Javanese Batik Collection of King Chulalongkorn of Siam” continues until May 2021 at the Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles within the Grand Palace compound in Bangkok.

It’s open daily from 9am to 4.30pm.

Respectful attire is required – no shorts or flip-flops.

Admission is Bt150 (Bt80 for seniors, Bt50 for students and ages 12 to 18, free for younger children).

For details, call (02) 225 9420 or visit http://www.QSMTThailand.org.