Tom Vater

My AWSJ feature story on Kep, a seaside resort on Cambodia´s southeastern coast, is now available online. In the 1950s and 1960s, Kep-sur-Mer was a popular beach getaway for Cambodia´s elite, who built villas and modest palaces along the beach front and sipped cocktails to the sounds of Khmer Rock’n’Roll. In the 1970s the small [...]

February 24th, 2011 | Tags: Asia, Asia Wall Street Journal, beach, Cambodia, Cambodian, Cambodian Riviera, Center for Thai and ASEAN News Study, feature story, Kep, Kep sur Mer, Khmer, Khmer Rock'n'Roll, Luke Duggleby, seaside, The Asia Wall Street Journal, Tom Vater, travel, travel journalism, Weekend Magazine | Category: Cambodia | Leave a comment

Every day, we appear to be moving a little closer to a state of affairs where governments could become obsolete. Large parts of the world have always been ruled by people who don’t really qualify as governments, but in recent years, perfectly respectable rulers have also shown signs (not for the first time) that they [...]

February 22nd, 2011 | Tags: 21st century, Angela Merkel, Aroon Thaewchatturat, Barack Obama, capitalism, China, climate change, Colonel Gaddafi, comment, consumerism, David Cameron, Egypt, France, Franz Kafka, Franz Kafka quote, Gaddafi, gangsterism, Germany, iPAd, irony, journalism, Kafka, Lybia, Nicolas Sarkozy, opinion, political corruption, politics, revolution, Russia, sarcasm, TIME, Tom Vater, UK | Category: China, Egypt, France, Germany, UK, USA | Leave a comment

Tom Vater reports on Pussy & The Learjets – Bangkok’s loudest Rock’n’Roll band – in the February issue of Traversing the Orient Magazine, published in Thailand and the Philippines. For more info on the band, visit The Learjets’ Website. Images by Aroon Thaewchatturat.

February 19th, 2011 | Tags: alternative music, Aroon Thaewchatturat, article, Bangkok, garage punk, magazine, music, press, punk rock, Pussy & The Learjets, Thailand, Tom Vater, Traversing The Orient, underground music | Category: Thailand | Leave a comment

Tura Satana, the trash queen of the 1960s, the star of Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, the only film Russ Meyer made that did not contain nudity, died on February 4th, aged 72. In Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, Satana played Varla, the leader of a trio of thrill-seeking go-go dancers who kills a man with her [...]

February 10th, 2011 | Tags: actress, American Asian, Asian-American, Billy Wilder, cult movie, death, discrimination, Elvis Presley, Faster Pussycat! Kill Kill!, Irma La Douce, London Underground, nudie, obit, obituary, psychotronic movie, racism, racism in the US in the 1950s, Russ Meyer, Scala Cinema London, sex symbol, Skala Cinema London, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Stooges, trash movie, Tura Satana | Category: Japan, UK, USA | Leave a comment

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February 5th, 2011 | Tags: Air America, Alfred McCoy, Amerikas geheimer Krieg in Laos, Apocalypse Now, Asia, CIA, documentary, drugs, Fred Branfman, heroin, Heroin and the CIA, Hmong, Lao, Laos, Long Cheng, Marc Eberle, opium, Secret War, South East Asia, The Most Secret Place on Earth, Tom Vater, Tony Poe, USA, Vang Pao, Vietnam, Vietnam War | Category: Germany, Laos, USA | Leave a comment

The Most Secret Place on Earth – The CIA’s Covert War in Laos will be shown as part of the Lifescapes Film Festival in Chiang Mai this week. The screeing is on Sunday, February 6th at 14.30. For further details, please visit the Festival Website. For an enlightened and accurate telling of the CIA´secret history [...]

February 4th, 2011 | Tags: Air America, Alfred McCoy, Amerikas geheimer Krieg in Laos, Apocalypse Now, Asia, Chiang Mai, CIA, documentary, drugs, Fred Branfman, heroin, Heroin and the CIA, Hmong, Laos, Lifescapes Film Festival, Long Cheng, Marc Eberle, opium, Secret War, South East Asia, Thailand, The Most Secret Place on Earth, Tom Vater, Tony Poe, USA, Vang Pao, Vietnam, Vietnam War | Category: Laos, Thailand, USA | Leave a comment