We all have our biases. Mine is Checkinn99. I like the place; I like the proprietor, Chris Catto-Smith. I like the clientele for the most part. Knock yourself out those of you who like to poke fun at Pinay bands, I like MOTH too, as artists and people. So I’m giving them plenty of blog ink as they head into their last weekend at their Sukhumvit location. Tonight, Friday, July 1st is the last official night of trade at Checkinn99. Get on down if you’re in the Zone. Another historic night in a 60 year epic tale.

Photo by Eric Nelson taken in the Checkinn99 tunnel – Note the appropriate Last Call poster

Irregular Members of the Checkinn99 Book Club

L to R Jim Algie author of the soon to be released book, “On the Night Joey Ramone Died: Tales of rock ‘n’ punk from Bangkok, New York, Cambodia and Norway.”  James A. Newman, author of the Joe Dylan series the latest release being “Fun City Punch” and Thomas Hunt Locke, author of the Declan Power and Sam Collins series and soon to be released, The Beauty of Isaan based on the life of legendary Checkinn99 beauty, Mama Noi, who passed away in 2016.

Here is a quote from Jim Algie which appeared today in an article I wrote for What’s On Sukhumvit :

“The demise of the CheckInn is symptomatic of what’s been happening all over Bangkok recently. We’ve lost the food street on Sukhumvit Soi 38, large chunks of the Pak Khlong Flower Market, the Rex Hotel, and in the next eight months or so, Cheap Charlie’s will be torn down too. Little by little the city’s real character is being eroded in favor of this generic façade of malls, condos, and international chain stories and fast food franchises, which looks like any place and feels like nowhere.” – Jim Algie

Thom Locke has written a poem about his feelings about losses during the past year, when I asked him for a quote. Thom’s a man I want on my corner during good times and bad. He played a quintessential role in the birth of my book. He is a good author but more importantly I consider him a good friend.

A POEM BY THOM HUNT LOCKE

A quote a quote

Friend Kevin

Wrote

No no

I tossed

This is a year

With too much loss

Mama Noi and Mark Fenn

Are names too easily

Come across

The memory of

Noi & Fenn

Has brought a

More optimistic tone

To my pen

So into

The tunnel

I will go

For here surely

Was a show

Bing & Bob

Look down with a smirk

As you enter for

A night of mirth

Listening to John Gartland

Deliver his prose with a

Pronounced British sneer

Listen, the laughter

Right there

It seems as if

Bing & Bob

Are near

Outside one can feel

The allure

James Newman is holding court

With his Bangkok Night of Noir

Last time in town

Friends all gathered round

Have you seen Vinyl

You should have a look

No, I said

Better to wait

For Jim Algie’s book

Now we can hear

The developers crashing ball

Is this the end

One and all

A publican’s publican

Chris Catto Smith is

All piss and vinegar

He’ll see it through

Check Inn 99

Will arise anew

And there I will go

And take a seat

To sit and wait

For Kevin S. Cummings

Next Bangkok Beat

Let’s dispense with the sentimentality for now. For tonight there is celebration and tomorrow night, Saturday, July 2nd, 2016 there is a Drink the Bar Dry and Moving Out Party at Checkinn99. Cover Charge is 1,000 Baht and a bargain. I’m going to end now and pour myself a glass of red wine in California. It beats crying in my beer. As my Cambodian comrade Christopher Minko says, “Onward we must.” Best wishes to Checkinn99 Family.