BBC: Kings of Glam

Tricky to get the subject matter right because the worst excesses of Glam are so over the top. I've seen much better documentaries but it has some great points. It's strongest feature are the creative people associated to the cast of characters from the world of music. If a documentary gets this right and gets them talking in an interesting manner it's always doable. You can make a documentary about anything no matter how cheesy.

Lot's of working class boys from the Midlands in this one (shout out to Slade). Bryan Ferry drips style and there's a momentary glimpse of David Bowie at Marc Bolam's funeral getting into a chaffeur driven limousine and looking flawless. 

Sombre but perfectly flawless.

'76 or '96?

Fantastic quality. Exceptional. If she'd married him her name would have been Jerry Ferry.

The King's English

The first time I saw the Thai King was on Television in Frankfurt 1992 when the Royal Thai Military did what they do best which is killing Thai citizens. In 20 years despite occasionally being close I've never heard him speak English and this is the first time. It's as good a clip as one could wish to see and know a little of the man. 

The Video is via this post from Andrew Marshall who is one of the few journalists I respect as he resigned his position from Reuters and wrote candid journalist reports that prevent him returning to Thailand any time in the near future. He resigned from Reuters to prevent his colleagues from being exposed to any danger.

It's a massively complex subject but the bottom line is the military run Thailand as indeed they do in the US or the UK if you really scratch away at the facade of democracy.