Here is my sketch from Sunday's closing ceremony at the Bangkok International Film Festival 2006. Willem Dafoe, in his rugged splendor.

Humble opinion time: this is one of today's most versatile actors, capable competent and with a broad dramatic palette and wide appeal.

He caught my attention in "Streets of Fire" as the heavy, and I watched with interest as Willem, Rick Moranis, Bill Paxton, Diane Lane, Stony Jackson and Amy Madigan left poor Michael Pare in the dust of B-flicks, to pursue their careers on Hollywood's A-list, even if some of them are A-minus.

Glittering Cap to the Bangkok Film Festival 2006

Wow!

For having no dinner, as such, it was still an enjoyable and delightful evening. Stars glittered, hoi polloi fawned, scraped, bowed and rubbed elbows with the famous, the infamous and the wanna-be-famous.

I got several likenesses sketched, and in some cases actually got names and autographs... but in the press of the evening, and the fluid nature of "..'scuze me... Willem!" and instantly I had no more access to the desired face.

The film to cap the evening was "Rent", and I very highly recommend it IF you like musicals. Sort of "Moulin Rouge" in New York; but there wasn't much time before Rent started, to sketch Ed Harper, line producer of K2, Modesty Blaise, Darling, Scrooge (UK), and others.


The beautiful and beautifully-coiffed young lady shown above is ChonPahnSah Nareurah, of Channel 11 TV. Her English is good, her composure is better, and she was a delight to view, MC-ing the evening, even if you weren't sketching her!

To all those who were told their sketches would be here, well they're actually also HERE:

www.BrainSurgeryWithSpoons.blogspot.com

UPDATE: The Willem Dafoe sketch should be posted today. 28/02/162BE-2006CE

Intelligent Face in the Evening

Patrick Southard seemed to know his way around the stars and star-makers, and graciously consented to autograph his sketch when it was done.

Able to see easily over the heads of the waves of people lapping at his beach, he cast a dignified (and TALL) presence over his sphere of influence.

Here it is, as I promised, Patrick.

Karridine

It wasn't all non-Thais at the FilmFest by a long shot.


Pictured immediately below is Wootichai, a wheel in the mover-shaker cirles of Thai film-making, although the jazz combo and the announcements kept him from articulating clearly just what he does!
Pictured here is Rajpal Narula, managing director of Benetone Films, of Bangkok and beyond. His work in TV, commercials and documentaries has garnered wide-spread acclaim.
Karridine

The Cutest Thing

Normally a professional international relocation consultant, Christine Poilane, who usually graces the offices of TransLink Logistics, was last night wearing a lovely white-with-soft-color-spots evening gown that made her look gorgeous!

But I thimk she's married, so I minded my P's and Q's!


Karridine

With Danis in Your Evening

Danis Tanovic caught my attention in his animated conversation with a most lovely young lady, whom he wouldn't allow to be drawn, probably for fear other noble knights of the realm would vie for her charms!







Karridine

...and the Lovely and Charming Roong

Long-haired and lovely, Roong was actually the first celebrity of the evening that I drew, always a sucker for silkie, black locks!

Attending with her 3-year-old son, (who wouldn't give me his name, wouldn't sit for a sketch and wouldn't stop burning at about 137-Kelvin!) and her urbane husband, she was another light in Bangkok Film Festival's virtual
Sea of Lights!


Karridine

$400 Billion de-PORTation!

The UAE "American Ports Deal" is worth an estimated $400,000,000,000 yearly, right? Enemies of America and America's ideals take over 21 American ports, right?

And you're just going to sit still, and let them do it, right?

Wealth-Scented BLIP on My Radar Screen!

Taking a break from Friday's films, I'm negotiating something VERY GOOD for any entrepreneur or energetic self-made millionaire in-the-making, and even a lot of the level-headed job-holders who are looking for the door to a reliable backup income stream or two!

Have you ever heard of Agora publishing? Well, they're on my radar... and I'll tell you more, when I bring it through. If it's good, I'll share it with you!

Have a GREAT weekend.

(For those who know what Intercalary Days are, those leftover days just before the last month of the year, "Have a great Intercalary Days celebration!")

Spirit's Willing, But These Legs Gotta GO!

I met John Ladalski at the Bangkok Film Festival today, and interviewed him about his plans. He's no longer able to star in the violent milieu of the action film, as his legs have grown older, at about the same speed as his body (strangely enough), so he's filming "Treasure Island" (a French production) and moving forward on having screenplays written for the most timely of the 8 or 9 ideas he's been incubating for a couple of decades now!

He's paid his physical dues and earned his creative credits, so now its time to shift gears, he says, into Directing and Producing! Nate Harrison sat with us, adding corroboration and insight to John's vision and drive!

Good luck, John! See you March 18 or so!

Chinaman?

A touching and ironically-named movie, I highly recommend it. Sorry, my knuckles are dragging and my brow's lowth is showing. I meant 'film'.

Tomorrow: "The White Masai", "Joni's Promise" or "An American in Paris"

And I'm looking to sit in on Willem Dafoe's little 'Meat DePress' on Saturday... Sketch his famous craggy face...

Stay tuned, hang on tenterhooks, bated breath and all...

Somber But Exciting...

Watched "Sophie Scholl" this week, and was moved at the courage of German students struggling to do good, even during the death throes of the Nazi juggernaut. The film examines Sophie as part of the German-resistance movement, White Rose.

I was intrigued in no small measure due to my now nearly year-long study of the life and times of Manfred, a German youth of 13 who lived through the Fall of Berlin. And rediscovered his Diary full of notes, only last year! I'm writing a Treatment and Screenplay based on his experiences, transcribed by his own now nearly 80-year-old hand!

He lives now in Bangkok, on a sleepy, shady lane...

A Bangkok Dinner-Date with Dracula

Suave, composed without being self-centered, polite without being meek or squishy, Christopher Lee looked like everbody's favorite grandfather, his mellifluous baritone voice dignified, authoritative and easy to laugh.

A hit with the press, Mr Lee was humbly and intelligently answering questions from hoi polloi like the Bangkok press, International Foreign Film press, and me.

How does this relate to Cashing in on Life's Free Value? "Follow your passion!" (sketching interesting faces from life is one of mine) and "Strike while the iron's hot!" (Mr Lee may never cross my life-path again, AND the BKK FilmFest is only once a year.

Roger Corman's True Confessions!

Karridine Interviewing Roger Corman at the Bangkok Film Festival 2006:

Karridine: Roger, weren’t you married to a Swamp Women?

Corman: No, it was an Apache Woman with Five Guns West, who was a real Gunslinger.

The day we were married felt like the Day the World Ended. Honestly, living with her was like sleeping with The Beast with a Million Eyes!

K. You mean she was worse than The Oklahoma Woman?

Corman: I mean she had real spirit, and It Conquered the World! Me? I’d rather live in a Naked Paradise and dance Carnival Rock, which is Not of This Earth. Sex with her was great, but afterward I always had an Attack of the Crab Monsters.

K: Roger, at your infamous Hollywood parties, did The Undead Rock All Night?

Corman: Well, only if you were rocking with a Teenage Doll or Sorority Girl, otherwise its just a Saga of the Viking Women, who think I am a Mobster, and then the parties degenerated into a War of the Satellites, with Machine-Gun Kelly on one side of my pool and a Teenage Cave Man shagging She Gods of Shark Reef on the other.

Karridine: But Roger, when news of your successful directorial debut got out, didn’t the Guild demand A Bucket of Blood?

Corman: No, they sent some Nordic types over in a Ski Troop Attack, so The Wasp Woman, (my main squeeze at the time), hid me in the House of Usher, you know, that guy who led you to your seat when The Little Shop of Horrors turned its house-lights down and you could sit in the last row and neck with the Last Woman on Earth?

K: Didn’t you author an Atlas of Creatures from the Haunted Sea?

Corman: Actually, that was written by Peach Pit and the Pendulums, who got a Premature Burial by the Hollywood press.

K: Wasn’t that when Hollywood insiders saw you as The Intruder? They concocted Tales of Terror about you and your “Tower of London”-sized ‘package’, because you were bedding The Young Racers with The Raven-Black hair which was a Terror to brush in The Haunted Palace ?

Corman: X-ackley! The Masque of the Red Death often covered their pimply, teen faces like The Secret Invasion of The Tomb of Ligeia by The Wild Angels, but they’d apply Clearasil^©, and The St. Valentine's Day Massacre was nothing in comparison! Pimples never stood a chance, because it was A Time for Killing pimples and blackheads!

K: Roger, could you tell us of The Trip with The Wild Racers to your Target: Harry De Sade?

Corman: Well, Harry and I were wooing Bloody Mama, who had BAD Gas-s-s-s, and when she farted upwind of The Red Baron, Holy Deathsport, it was Frankenstein Unbound!

Karridine: Really?

Corman: Swear to God!

Beautiful Downtown Bangkok!

This is where it's all happening!

Bangkok Film Festival, headquartered in the swanky, 5-day-old Mega-Mall, Paragon, in downtown Bangkok city!

The walls there, beside the pedestrians, has water gurgling gently down it, and the Mall-Theater Complex rising 6 storeys behind it. Classy.

And the Bangkok Hi-Flyer overshadows the pedestrians, being JUST out of the picture, to the left.

Bangkok Film Festival 2006

I'm out among hoi polloi today, sniffing for crumbs at the Bangkok Film Festival 2006, and drawing Kerricatures of the famed and unnamed.

You'll be able to see them ASAP, but walking around with a digitizing pad and a laptop is the next step for me. Right now, I skunge by using 'old technology' of pencils and paper. Expensive paper, but paper nonetheless!

CUL

See you later!

Cash Traps?

Although it sometimes seems that CASH is king, having a credit card or debit card can be a real life-saver... until we add in the costs and penalties coming with it, including possible identity theft!

Where are your preferences? If you could casually stuff a bundle of $100-bills in your purse or briefcase, would you deal totally in cash?

What do YOU see as the benefits?

Is Money a Bane or a Blessing?

Where is money in your life?

Or do you ask yourself, "Where is money? Why isn't it in MY life?"

I Sense an Ad... Somewhere

How do we get involved in AdSense, and when does it MAKE sense to do so?

Any opinions, O Field of Diamond Dreams?

When Is Bread MORE Than BREAD?

If you've ever been on the street, short of cash, hungry for work and hungry for more than that, join us here as we stuff our pockets with LINKS, resources, and posted feedback from The Real World...

...where people learn, grow and pull themselves up by their bootstraps!

So when folks around you are trying to eat your energy by telling you how BAD things are, just look around! There are opportunities, acres of diamonds, and angels in the shadows, just waiting to help!

Right, Micki?