Hey all,
Got a chance to go around with DJ Ernie and fiance Bill on Tuesday of my Bali trip. Went to “Ground Zero” or the location of the Bali bombings from 2001. Saw the memorial, wreckage from one of the blasts, and one location that was rebuilt.
Pics after the jump. › Continue reading
Hey all,
This isn’t a normal recommendation or work experience. Felt I had to voice my deep concern over some treatment I received last night.
Yesterday I went to a networking event hosted by The Expat Club Singapore. The event was supposed to start at 10 PM and sounded pretty straight forward. Wear red to meet friends, white to take it easy, and red and white together if you were single and looking to mingle…whatever, I decided to ignore the pseudo-swinger theme and just enjoy myself, do some networking, and meet some other expats.
Wrong. Showed up at 10:15 and it was empty. Maybe 4 other people. Then literally out of no where there was way, way too many people packed inside. Any chance of networking was out the window. It was a full on clubbing party now… still fine with that, except the music sucked in the “hip-hop” side of the club - not just kind of, the DJ was playing the horrible top 40 stuff you’d hear at some teeny club in RCA as a warm up act (I thought the DJ pool was better in Singapore) and songs that were popular when I was a DJ (ten years back).
Stayed for a while and was still somehow managing to have a good time. Joanna and I were joined by a Swedish friend we met in Bangkok a few months back. Later in the evening our friend Ather showed up and that’s when things really went south. Ather was having trouble getting in so I went out and gave him the “password” to get into the party. He was in for a few minutes and wanted to go outside to smoke. Upon leaving the club he called me to say he was denied entrance back in and we couldn’t figure out why.
It was now about 1 AM and we decided enough was enough for the night (needed to get home and watch Lost). Got to the door and it looked like a zombie movie - young 20-year olds looking to get into the club were pushing forward and smashed up against the door. The idiot security guys hadn’t kept the line back and now everyone was up against the door. The club was obviously over capacity and they had finally decided to shut the doors…
Except the idiots weren’t letting anyone out.
So there were clubbers outside yelling at the security to get in and we were yelling from the inside to get out. Meanwhile they had barred the doors with their bodies and put their arm through the door to keep it from opening. So we stood there at an impasse for about 15-20 minutes with more and more people all looking to exit the club without options to do so. Finally when everyone started pulling out their phones to call the police they opened the door and let about 10 of us out before immediately closing the doors again.
After the tragedy of Santika this was an outrage. I felt unsafe and uncared for by the club owners. I can understand keeping people out (they should have started that hours earlier), but barricading the doors with human shields to keep people from getting out of the club is unacceptable. After leaving we called the police to report, but don’t know if the call was effective or not. I don’t know if I’ll ever bring myself or friends back to that terrible club. It was an awful experience - which is a shame because I love the pixel art walls and electro room.
If in Singapore and looking for a good, safe night out - steer clear of the Butter Factory.
Paul
Hey all,
Woah, sitting here at my computer shocked at the news this morning. Called all my University friends first thing this morning, Sabaerni, Shyless, Mario, etc…all my friends who regularly go to Santika.
Santika isn’t a place I photograph usually. It was, however, the first place I visited when venturing out in Bangkok. My friends from University used to go there in groups of 10 or 15 or so kids and we always had a good time. You buy a bottle of Black Label and all the mixers and ice and stand around tables in circles. Each night there’s the same set of DJ playing Hip Hop, Thai band playing covers, DJ, Thai Band, and finish with DJ again.
I went there about 5-10 times over the past year and a half and always had a good time. I photographed there once for the Global DJ concert (the guys that do that horrible remix of All the Leaves are Brown or whatever that song is called). At that concert I remember the place was over-packed and I felt really unsafe/uncomfy there and left after 15 minutes (made some good friends that night because of our shared distaste for the music and our after-party at 808). I’ve never returned to the place after that.
And this was precisely why. It never seemed safe there. I feel so sorry for those who died and were injured. These kinds of things shouldn’t happen… kids just wanting to usher in the new year. Santika is a place where people enjoy the evening with friends, it’s not a sleezy pick up place. You dance and sing in your various table circles and by about 1 AM everyone is dancing and singing together.
I’d be cautious if I were a clubber in Bangkok from here on out. The clubs are very vulnerable to things like this. Glow only has one door, Bed has a sort of emergency exit, but the tools customers that go there would probably all be pushing over each other to reach the exits, Club Culture has only the main door and a stairwell to boot, and many other clubs are also woefully underequipped for emergencies. All it’d take is one bomb or fire at those places to cause mass casualties and loss of tourism to this already hard-up city. I hope all the clubs will now be forced to undergo renovations to put better measures in place. This shouldn’t happen again, but given the state of things in Thailand I fear this is just the beginning.
Paul
Got a call late on Sat from Jam to come to Glow for SENSHIMIX METRO Pt2. Was fun party all in all. Not many people so took the opportunity to photograph the staff a lot. Mini pics here or look for glow on their facebook page.
Paul
