One thing that you discovered whle recording Forevermore... bears are Whitesnake fans.

Ever considered a haircut... no, I like having long hair.

Any regrets in your life... none at all.

Misperception that makes you laugh the hardest... the Sex Object awards I have at home.

Greatest non-musical influences... My wife Cindy.

Catch Whitesnake play on Nov 1 at Fort Canning Park.

What is the most important ingredient for the local literary scene?
We as a society need to focus on arts education for young Singaporeans growing up and exposing them to different literary forms. This is crucial as it would inspire the scene, and in turn attract youth to pursue arts-based careers.

What are some recent developments that have impressed you?
There is something brewing in the country, with the introduction of new quality journals like Ceriph and online outlets like Poskod. The vibrancy is never about producing big international literary stars because you can never plan for that but what you can do is build a conducive environment for writers to exchange ideas, create networking opportunities and connect with publishers.

What do you hope to achieve with The Singapore’s Writers Festival?
It’s a great opportunity for Singaporean writers to garner a wide audience. The publishing symposiums will also expose the local literary community to folks from abroad. We hope the big international names will inspire the next generation of writers too. And it’s also great that this would become an annual event to look forward to in our city.

The Singapore’s Writers Festival is on from Oct 22-30 at various venues in the city. Log on to www.singaporewritersfestival.com for more details.

The journalist

Sarinee Achavanuntakul

In the media world, Sarinee Achavanuntakul wears many hats: blogger, publisher, writer, translator, and editor. She is also co-founder of Thaipublica.org, a website dedicated to investigative journalism with a focus on transparency in the public and private sectors and sustainable development.
How does Thai society view corruption?
Thai society isn’t so different from other societies in the sense that corruption is not something that people feel they can do anything about, especially when it’s pervasive. It’s the kind of thing most of us don’t feel directly affected by. Damages from corruption mostly occur in the future, in the form of our children getting bad quality public services. Many funds are diverted to useless projects instead of real investments in education and health, for example. We feel like there’s nothing we can do because the more pervasive it is, the more we feel like we have to be part of that system.
What is the role of the media in fighting corruption?
Because corruption in Thailand is extremely pervasive, we need better ways to get information out. The media is crucial in terms of doing investigative news, and also in not honoring well-known corrupt figures. We know well-known corrupt officials who can still somehow go to social functions and people shake their hands and wai them. This has to stop. Social sanction is crucial to instil the sense, especially in the younger generations, that there are certain kinds of people we don’t want to honor. As long as the media still pays homage to corrupt politicians and to corrupt figures, it’s not going to change.
Can you talk about the potential of the internet in terms of exposing corruption?
The internet is a great platform because anonymity is important. A lot of people who have sensitive critical information naturally don’t want their identity exposed. The internet by nature protects your anonymity quite well, even though in Thailand we have very bad laws that can destroy that very quickly. The question then is how to make those people feel safe enough to volunteer information. How to pick out that kind of information and make it as effective as possible. So this goes back to the role of journalists. More journalists have to look at the internet as a place where they can do their job.
What other anti-corruption initiatives need to happen?
The anti-corruption initiatives from the private sector need a lot more resources commited to them in order to move them forward and not be just for show. They need to commit resources to establishing hotline centres where people can call in. They need a real mechanism to make people feel that it’s trustworthy and reliable. They can help push for better disclosure. They can help push for real standards on CSR—the real kind of CSR that includes anti-corruption as one of the key items. They can push for witness protection laws.
What are some myths about corruption?
The real myth is that we cannot do anything about it. If you look at the history of other countries, nobody has gone from an under-developed country to a more developed country without fighting corruption.

How have you changed since Fan Chan?
I feel less excited about work because I have made a bunch of movies so I’ve gotten used to it. [When you’re experienced,] you know what is going to work or what’s not going to work. It’s not as fun as when you’re younger, when you can do whatever you want to do. The process of making movies is getting boring for me now.

How did this movie get started?
This is my first movie where I am not the initial person who created the project. It’s actually from GTH producers, such as Jira Malikul. At first, I was quite worried that I might not do a good job. I am not a professional director. I can’t just narrate anything that people throw at me. All the movies I’ve done turned out OK because I had experienced the story myself.

Why did you accept the project?
After I read the brief about Tob [Itthipat Kullapongwanitch, the owner of Tao Kae Noi seaweed], I felt that there was a link between him, Peach [Pachorn Jirathiwat, the lead actor of the movie] and I. We all have conflicts with our dads. For me, I felt that my father loved me less than my siblings. He sent me to a boarding school far away from home. It’s also how I got the original idea for Dek Hor which I directed in (2006). Eventually, when I grew up, and I got into all the top schools, I realized this was better than my siblings’ education. And Tob loves to do business but doesn’t like the part where he has to deal with the contracts and legalese, just like me. I love running a production house but don’t like the paperwork! For Peach, he felt that his dad always cared more about his sisters. So I kind of feel eager to tell these stories.

What did you dream of before becoming a director?
I wanted to be a teacher or open a school because I feel that life in school is so happy. You’ve got the bad parts, like taking exams, but you also make friends who always stay with you. Anyway, the inspiration that made me want to work in films came from how I always shot photos on my family trips. I would get a lot of compliments from my relatives.

Did you ever make any bad decisions?
Of course. I’ve always loved films but I instead chose to study accounting at ABAC University. All because I chose what people expected me to do. I dropped out when I was in my second year because I hated studying there. I thought, what if I die tomorrow, why do I have to stay sad like this? I finally was accepted to study film at Chulalongkorn University where I found out that I love films.

What are you going to do next?
I’m finished. I feel complete with this movie. I won’t feel any regret if I never make a movie after this one. Now I want to do other things like exploring the world. I have a TV travel program, Hangover Thailand, for the Travel Channel. And I just want to go out to find things that excite me.

BK: What are you doing for flood relief?
I’m the supervisor of a team of volunteers that work hand in hand with the relief services and the government to keep these donation stations open. I organize donations and see what supplies need to go where. 

BK: Is the government managing the situation well?
It’s really difficult to say. I think they’re doing the best they can but it’s probably not enough. It’s also hard to say what they can do better because we really don’t know the severity of the situation outside of Bangkok. It’s an incredibly difficult position to manage a flooding country to begin with, and I really find it hard to directly criticize those in charge. Now, it’s really up to people to come together and help themselves and each other. We can’t rely on the government alone to solve this problem. Everyone has to prepare on their own.

BK: What’s the average work day?
We’re open 24 hours a day, but my staff and I will come from 10 o’clock to midnight. It’s a really long day. The [Dust Thani] hotel will be using this space soon, so we’ll have to move everything out and then eventually move it back. We plan on being open for about two months, but we’ll see what happens, because at this point there’s no telling what can happen. I have a great team of volunteers doing their bit and helping out at this station.

BK: What has been donated? What else needs to be donated?
We’ve had all kinds of things donated, including medicine, which is what we need the most. Malaria is an increasing problem that we need to prepare for. The conditions are perfect for it to spread rapidly, so we could really use more medicine, and specifically malaria pills. We’ve gotten everything from clothes, to water to toiletries. People have been very generous so far and I know that many are very grateful for their efforts.

BK: What can people do to get involved besides donating?
Well, we’ll see what happens—but for now, donate what you can and don’t forget about the people outside of Bangkok, like in Ayutthaya. I think we’ll need to rely on people helping out a lot more after the flood comes than we do now. People will need homes rebuilt and we’ll all need to do our part in helping everyone recover. Preparation is the least difficult part.

What are some themes that you constantly explore in your works?
They are heavily based on appropriation and my interest in everyday life. As an arts educator, I have always been intrigued by my differences with the younger generation as well as the problems they face. In fact my latest interactive work Performance Karaoke was inspired during my stint teaching students from Maris Stella High School in Malaysia. It also serves as my commentary on youth’s fascination with new media and technology.

Why was your mother involved in the creative process of works like Another Woman?
I involved my mother because I had the compelling need to explain to her why I made the choice to quit my regular job and create art. The entire process was therapeutic as we learnt so much about each other during the process.

How does presenting your exhibitions to a worldwide audience affect your subject matter?
The more international I ventured, the more my works became increasingly local. I felt it was my duty to engage these audiences with a distinctively Singaporean identity despite the universal values that resonated in them.

As a veteran artist, what do you hope to convey with your works?
Art shouldn’t be put on a pedestal. It is an essential part of life and our
need to value ourselves.

The exhibition is on through Jan 1 2012 at Singapore Art Museum.

Renegade Creation is… all about a group of friends who respect, trust and like each other and love making music together.

A major part of our music is… all about improvising; it gives us a sense of play and keeps things fresh.

Loving what you do on stage… connects you to the audience. You can’t fake it at all, it has to come from within.

If there was a fire, besides Renegade Creation’s albums, I would save… my solo albums Tiger Walk and Talk to Your Daughter. These are two albums that reflect different facets of my musical range.

Recently, I have been listening to… old jazz tunes from the likes of Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane, as well as classical Indian music which includes Hariharan and Ravi Shankar.

My plans for the year include… recording a new studio album with Renegade Creation. I will also be working on a new solo album with a Dutch label Mascot Records. It’s going to be all about making fantastic blues albums.

Our gig in Singapore is going to be all about… unpretentiously great music.

Catch Renegade Creation on Oct 14, at TAB.

I was just a typical Singaporean kid in my childhood. I did well in primary school.

Midway through my education in Melbourne, my dad’s business was affected by the Asian financial crisis. I had to stop my degree course and self-fund my diploma.

I aspire to be great and not rich. Being able to make a change in people’s lives is more important than having a fat bank balance.

My friends would wonder if I am crazy if I suddenly turned up in a suit. They are so used to my self-proclaimed techno-punk look of checked shirts and black boots.

My black boots give me power. Not that I want to use them but they come in handy when someone creates trouble in the club.

My mantra is: Entertain, educate and innovate.

I owe everything I have learnt about the dance music industry to Melbourne’s Richard Maher. He taught me everything from guerilla marketing to quality music. And more importantly, about taking pride in my work.

I have always wondered why he picked me over his fellow Australians.

I used to travel around Melbourne with a large bag of posters and pasting them on poles and cars. I have touched almost every pole in Melbourne.

It was more than just pasting posters. We listened to records and he taught me how to break down and analyze what makes a good record.

The negative press that the rave culture attracted saddens me. It was definitely more than a drugged up culture. In fact, the more positive elements like the indie press, pirate stations and the dedication of the event organizers was hardly touched upon.

My heroes are Jeff Mills, Underground Resistance, Tony Hawk and Rodney Mullen.

I am quite a simple person who is easily contented by creating a great party.

I don’t like to go out. I can’t even remember the last time I was in Orchard Road.

Indie is all about having self-belief and going for what you want in life.

As I grow older, I appreciate my family more. Even a simple moment like sharing dessert my mum makes for me has special significance. I can always count on them when I am down.

If I wasn’t a DJ, I would have been a pro skateboarder.

Event details here.

Where did the name Booka Shade come from?
Actually it has no real meaning. That name goes back to the early or mid nineties. We were doing a lot of production work for many international labels, and we were in Holland flipping through magazines and there was the name “Booker T.” we turned the T into an A, and added the name shade, as in shadow. Some people thought it was an Asian name at first. It’s a hard name to learn, but once you’ve got it, it’s easy to remember.

What is your musical guilty pleasure?
I have a son who is 11 who likes to listen to the latest stuff, like Katy Perry. So I end listening to California Girls by Katy Perry. That’s the kind of stuff you listen to when you’re a dad.

Who is your musical inspiration?
We don’t listen to a lot of club music nowadays. A long time inspiration was a band called Dépêche Mode, and lately my partner listens to a lot of Gorillaz. The rest of the inspiration can be anything like the travels you do or the places you live in. The whole life we lead is very inspiring. We try and take the energy out of life and put it into music.

You’ve been touring a lot. Which has been your fave gig?
We’ve played in beaches, caves, warehouses…. But one thing that sticks in my head is in Red Rocks, Colorado in the Rocky Mountains. We had about twelve hundred people in front of us. After the show we got so much positive feedback that we really hope to go back.

This is your first time being in Bangkok. What are you looking forward to seeing?
I hope that we find some time to have dinner with people who can tell us about the history of the city and its people. I’m really interested in those sorts of things.

What’s the most important thing about being a DJ?
We’re mostly a live band: Walter plays keyboards and I do the electronic drums. DJ’ing is something fairly new for us. We only started two years ago. We got thrown into the DJ world at a high level, and we had to have a really fast learning curve. We can try out a lot of new things thanks to DJ sets. The important thing is bringing the audience a good amount of positive energy so they can have a great night. The DJ doesn’t always have to please the audience; there always has to be a sort of “educating”, but they should always leave saying “wow that was a great night.”

Where do you see yourself in twenty years?
If I’m still walking hopefully I’ll be doing something that interests me and something that’s challenging. I don’t want to stop with what I do or get into a slower place or get bored. I always want to check out new stuff. My life will always have something to do with music. It was very obvious from an early age.

Whats next for Booka Shade?
We try to have as much time as possible in the studio. Because we’re recording an album now for the New Year. We just came home from a five week US tour. We need to relax a little bit. We’re in Asia now and then South America, then in Russia, then the year is over. We’re trying to find as much time in the studio as possible. Hopefully we’ll be back next year with some more music for you.

How did you end up joining this program?
Stephen: This Australian Antarctic Arts Fellowship has been around for about 20 years and people who work in various humanities fields may apply for a trip. Writers, photographers, film-makers, artists, musicians and even dancers can all apply for a trip down far south as long as there is some extra space on one of the ships or planes. I have made three separate trips under this program.

What is the subject matter of your exhibition?
Stephen: The exhibition is inspired by the strange landscapes or ice-scapes of Greenland and the otherworldly night sky-scapes of Antarctica. This exhibition is only one of many I have had which displays the work I’ve made down in Antarctica. This show is a bit different as my partner Carolina had a body of photographic works created in Northwest Greenland, and I had a small series of Aurora photographs from Antarctica which I wanted to exhibit so the joining of the two seemed a good plan.

What did you see?
Stephen: Antarctica and the Arctic are very different places. The Arctic is mostly frozen sea surrounded by three continents with a considerable population. Antarctica is a massive continent covered by ice and surrounded by ocean. The ice is three kilometers thick in some places and there have never been any humans living there. Now there are about 50 tiny scientific stations there but it is no one’s home. Life is tricky in both polar regions but far more so in Antarctica due to the more severe weather and the logistics to keep people alive there. There’s also the isolation factor for those that spend a winter down there.

Tell us a bit about the Auroras photos.
Stephen: I used a basic Sony Cybershot camera to capture the images, then made digital prints on textured high quality paper. They are landscape/night-scape images that reflect the experience I had of being in East Antarctica that long cold dark winter of 2009. These Aurora Australis images can symbolize the mesmerizing beauty of this phenomenon which belittles us and gives life to the word sublime.

And for the North Pole?
Carolina: I haven’t been to the South Pole; Argentina just recently started a project to involve artists with Antarctica. Maybe one day I will go. I had a small taste of polar regions in Greenland and it feels very different from where I live. First of all, getting there involves a few planes. Upernavik is a small isolated island, only 1,200 inhabitants and 11 settlements. Rocks, snow, ice make up the island. Long dark winters and bright summers. We went there in May 2010, and it was 24 hours of sunlight, never night. The sun just went down near the horizon for a few hours and then came up again. I used the Holga to capture this as it’s a very good friend to travel with: it doesn’t weigh much, is easy to operate, it is not afraid of the cold and quite unbreakable. I also like all the unexpected mistakes that happen due to its clumsy construction.

What we’ll see in this exhibition?
Stephen: Whatever the viewers gleans or gets from seeing our work depends on the individual. This can range from boredom to extreme inspiration. If these works remind people that the world is large, beautiful, fragile and mysterious and that humans are rather insignificant I think we would be quite happy with that.

Check it out at La Lanta Art Gallery