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Spreading Success of the Karaoke bar with guts
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Our Waistline Correspondent reports: It ought to have been a recipe for commercial disaster. It certainly took guts, if you’ll pardon the phrase, to open a bar for chubbies in one of Bangkok’s main arteries of eye candy, Silom Soi 4. But despite the looks-conscious locale, Bearbie Karaoke Bar has been attracting men of extreme girth in droves since it moved to the soi over four years ago. Not only that, Bearbie is so bullish about the future that it has invested in a re-fit; unlike some other businesses nowadays, these chubbies aren’t tightening their belts. So I went along before last week’s reopening to sniff the fresh paint and investigate Soi 4’s heavyweight success story.
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The Strange Case of the Disappearing “Gay Night”
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Our High Society Editor reports: A week or so ago, information was posted in our Bangkok Bars section about a thrilling addition to the weekly social calendar. At the futuristic Bed Supperclub in trendy Sukhumvit Soi 11, Sundays were to be given over to a new “Gay Night”. For those of us who prefer champagne with our lifestyle, it sounded almost too good to be true: an opportunity for gay westerners of discernment to meet the upwardly mobile Thai of their dreams. Sharp-eyed users of this site will have noticed that, soon afterwards, all references to Bed Supperclub were removed from www.dreadedned.com. This was done at the request of the management, but their motivation is far from clear.
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Markus finds the right Ambiance for a shot of Starbucks and Swiss economics
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Our Hospitality Correspondent reports: It’s all change at Ambiance, the landmark place to stay in the frisky heart of Pattaya’s Boyztown. After more than twenty years, Jim Lumsden - himself something of a Pattaya landmark – has relinquished the management of Ambiance to 35 year-old Markus Gloor, former Assistant Director of the no less esteemed Tarntawan Place, Bangkok. “Replacing Jim won’t be easy,” admits Markus, “but at least I feel very at home in Boyztown”.
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End of an era: Telephone Pub at last hangs up on Alexander Graham Bell
Sunday, July 24, 2011
After 24 years, Bangkok’s busy Telephone Pub is chucking out the trademark telephones that used to perch on its tables like ghosts from the pre-pre-digital era of Alexander Graham Bell. In their place, Skype videophones are this week being installed at strategic locations in the bar areas, restaurant and karaoke lounges of the venue on Silom Soi 4. Telephone Pub’s head honcho, Wayne, tells Dreaded Ned breathlessly: “We’ve moved into the 21st century!”
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Life after Sudden Death for Bangkok Nighterie
Thursday, July 07, 2011
Following the abrupt closure of @Richard’s in Silom, the self-styled “pub and restaurant” has been resurrected in the same location under an equally eccentric name, @Diamond. Tucked away in Silom Soi 2/1, this intimate venue has had a fresh lick of paint and is under new management. Ned joined a throng of Thai and western well-wishers at the reopening on Wednesday [6 July], and a very jolly night it proved.
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During April showers, watch out for emboldened young men
Monday, April 09, 2012
Our Expert on Divine Intervention vouchsafes: Earlier in the year, we reported on the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s plan to restore the kingdom’s image and revive its hospitality industry with a 6.3 billion Baht PR crusade, supported by the government under the title “Miracle Thailand Year 2012”. For many years previously, the TAT’s preferred slogan had been “Amazing Thailand”. Now, emboldened by the magical achievements of her first months in office (such as the swift reversal of the flood waters), PM Yingluck Shinawatra had decreed the nation’s elevation from being merely “amazing” to the status of an actual “miracle”. Strangely, there’s been precious little evidence of “Miracle Thailand Year 2012” so far, but perhaps the TAT has been distracted by what it refers to merrily as the “Songkran Splendours” of April.
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March comes in like a lion… and May will be Gaga
Friday, March 02, 2012
Our Gay Icon Editor screams: It’s just been confirmed that Lady Gaga will bring The Born This Way Ball to the Rajamangala National Stadium in what must surely be her spiritual home, Bangkok, on 25 May. The long-anticipated event risks relegating this month’s appearance by Olivia Newton-John at the sinisterly-named Hall 106 in BITEC Bangna to the status of a warm-up act. Tickets aren’t cheap for either dream-come-true. But, if you opt to miss La Newton-John and save up for Her Musical Loonyness, you could console yourself with Olivia’s new healthy eating cookbook. Who knows? It might unlock the secret of how she keeps her hair so sumptuously blonde at the age of 63! Now, this Deluge of Divas would overshadow all other news in a normal month. But there’s no such thing as a normal month in Thailand. True to form, the Kingdom has begun March by defying global trends, not to mention its own recent history, with a burst of bullish optimism that’s been endorsed by many gay businesses.
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Thai PM believes in miracles – official
Thursday, February 02, 2012
Our Mental Health Correspondent reports: Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s government has pledged 6.3 billion Baht for a campaign to revive tourism and counter the effects of street protests, terrorist alerts and flooding. The news comes despite repeated claims that Thai tourism had hardly been affected by the stream of negative news in recent times. Mind you, the figures published in support of those claims never did seem very plausible. And besides, consistency isn’t one of the P M’s big things, except perhaps in the rigid state of her hair-do and her ceaseless assault on the English language.
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A box full of reasons to be cheerful about 2012
Sunday, January 01, 2012
Our Lifestyle Editor explains: The news has been spreading like wildfire among resident queens throughout the holiday weekend. In the bars, saunas and tea rooms, they’ve nattered about little else. My elderly assistant, Yolande, hasn’t been so excited since she first laid hands on a copy of Physique Pictorial. It is such very special news, and has been so fervently awaited by all persons of delicacy and refinement, that it must be taken as a sign, an augury. Now only the most dyed-in-the-wool curmudgeons – Scrooges loitering unwanted after Christmas, like turkey scrag ends at the back of the fridge - can possibly doubt that 2012 will be a blissful year in The Land Of Smiles.
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Beginning of the Floods’ End, as Gay Bangkok parties on
Monday, November 14, 2011
Our Water Sports Correspondent reports: During the past couple of weeks, we Bangkokians have reeled before tides of disaster, mayhem and sheer incompetence. We’ve watched open-mouthed as discredited politicians and hapless officials have struggled vainly to stem a deluge that threatens to engulf millions and wreck edifices once thought impregnable. Yes, with the rest of the world, we’ve been riveted by the melodrama of the Eurozone and its seemingly impending collapse. It’s been a welcome distraction from the embarrassment of a local overflow that is a new feature of Thai political life.
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Ups and Downs of Gay Marriage in USA
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Soon after New York became the sixth and largest American state to legalise gay marriage, same-sex splicing came under attack from Presidential hopeful and latest darling of the American right, Michele “Barking” Bachmann.
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Singapore police reject licence application for gay event
Sunday, December 12, 2004
Just when everyone thought they could keep partying forever, the police on Wednesday rejected an application for a public entertainment licence (PELU) to hold SnowBall.04 on December 26 because "the event is likely to be organised as a gay party which is contrary to public interest in general."
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Singapore too conservative to tolerate gay groups
Saturday, April 10, 2004
The Singapore government said Wednesday that it would ban gay support organisations because its conservative population doesn't believe such groups deserve legitimacy.
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size really does matter
Thursday, February 05, 2004
A recent US court case has shown once again that the size of one's manhood really can be a critical issue, though in this case it was the smaller the better!
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just one click
Wednesday, October 22, 2003
That's all it took to really take the shine off the latest advance in penile prosthetics for five Texas men, but with a bit more attention to the look and feel the device could become the hottest "tool" for Bangkok's club patrons - at least the male ones.
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