Thailand Footprint: The People, Things, Literature, and Music of Thailand and the Region

Posts tagged ‘Colin Cotterill art’

Check Inn 99 Sign Goes Down

Bangkok Beat Final

 

Sunday, December 14th 2014. A day that will live if not in infamy than in incredulity. For it was on that day that the bureaucratic battle by Chris Catto Smith and his wife Mook was lost and the historic Check Inn 99 sign, seemingly forever located between Sukhumvit 5 and 7 was finally taken down by workmen to make more headroom available for bicyclists. Because as everyone knows, bicycling is one of the great recreational activities Bangkok is famous for on Sukhumvit Road. As Chris drove home the point so clearly last night as he recounted his horror tales of dealing with the Thai government: he thought he was dealing with a psychopath when in reality it turned out it was the creation of a cycle path. (See Check Inn 99 Facebook page for details).

Cycle Path

Psychopath or cycle path on Sukhumvit Road? You be the judge.

CheckInn

A piece of history is now gone – The iconic Check Inn 99 sign

Workman

Workman follow orders of Thai government and remove historic landmark

Nothing Lasts Forever

(All photographs courtesy of Chris Catto Smith and Mook at Check Inn 99)

But fear not. The memories of the Check Inn 99 sign will live on in the imaginative rendition by noted novelist and cartoonist, Colin Cotterill in the soon to be released book, BANGKOK BEAT detailing the colorful history of Check Inn 99. Over the past 7 months a lot of time and effort has been taken by members of the Check Inn 99 family to properly compile the needed information and pictures. For the first time the written and photographic history of Check Inn 99 will be detailed in book form, along with previously published popular essays from this blog. It will be released initially as an E book and then as a paperback, the latter which will be available at Check Inn 99, this web sight and other sources by early 2015.

The table of contents will follow closely the foundational quote of Thailand Footprint by Henry Miller:

Develop an interest in life as you see it; the people, things, literature, music – the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself.

In addition to the storied history of Check Inn 99 the book will delve into the interesting people, things, literature and music of Bangkok and the region.

The Check Inn 99 sign is no more. But it will live on on the cover of BANGKOK BEAT. Stay tuned to this new page for more details including a complete Table of Contents coming soon. The artwork is so good by Colin Cotterill, I’m posting it twice:

Bangkok Beat by Kevin Cummings

 BANGKOK BEAT available since June 8th, 2015

5 Comments

Taking a Break …

ShiloScratch

 

For the same reasons my dog scratches his ear with his hind leg, I’ll be taking a break here at Thailand Footprint. Because I have a bit of an itch to do so and because I can. It also follows a good prescription by Henry Miller, which you will find at the end of this post.

We’ll be headed back to the USA in about a week for a four month trip so it seems an appropriate time to focus on a couple of other priorities. A full schedule of posts should resume in the Fall. In the interim I will continue to post the Henry Miller quotes once a month, the occasional book review and travel post as long as I can figure out a Thai-centric angle. A few choice reblogs may go out as well.

SPP

 

I am also pleased at this time to announce a three book deal with Spanking Pulp Press. The deal is, they’ll publish my first book in the Fall of 2014 if I agree not to write three more. It seems more than fair.

Here is a sneak peak of a small portion of the cover art for the book cover, done by Colin Cotterill. There is a lot more of the Cotterill brilliance where this came from:

CheckInn99CC

 

The book will be a collection of essays and interviews, many of which have been previously posted here and at Chiang Mai City News. In addition there will be new material including a proper history of the Check Inn 99 Cabaret Bar owned and operated by Chris Catto-Smith and his wife, Mook. For those who have never been, do yourself a favor and check it out. It is located between Soi 5 and Soi 7 on Sukhumvit Road in Bangkok, Thailand. Smack dab in the middle of the Zone.  Spanking Pulp Press and I wish to do a good job representing Thailand and Check Inn 99 so the time away from the blog should be a boon for that purpose.

Thanks again to all the regular and irregular readers.

As the former Governor of the great state of California once said, “I’ll be back.” I hope you’ll return in the Fall and for the monthly Henry Miller quotes. A bonus quote from Mr. Miller, here:

“To be silent the whole day long, see no newspaper, hear no radio, listen to no gossip, be thoroughly and completely lazy, thoroughly and completely indifferent to the fate of the world is the finest medicine a man can give himself.” 

Thanks, as always, for stopping by. For dramatic exit effect, click the link below to get a nice short video about the Spanking Pulp Press logo:

Spanking Pulp Press Logo

12 Comments