Frankenstephff adopted
His exhibition at the Alliance Francaise cancelled due to its fears of riling the host country, Nation editorial cartoonist Stephff has instead arranged for a show at Cho Why.
Why? The little gallery off Rama IV Road in Chinatown said okay, that’s why. Unfortunately, but also adding to the buzz, “Frankenstein-ocracy” will be a one-evening event, on October 16, rather than the two weeks planned at the Alliance.
This is only Stephff’s second exhibition in 11 years and a crew from Japan’s NHK English channel will be there to record it as 60 politically incorrect cartoons go on view and on sale.
Followers of Stephff’s Facebook page had been hoping the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand would come through in the clutch and host the exhibition, but that fell through, and the artist isn’t very pleased.
“I asked for only one evening at the FCCT and they couldn’t even give me one evening,” he says. It’s not that complicated to have one evening between its month-long prearranged exhibitions. I’m very disappointed with the FCCT. In three years I’ve asked them three times to host a show!”
Rich kid’s plate is quite full, as it turns out
As it says in the Bible or someplace, “If you’ve got it, flaunt it.” The same book also has a parable about a wealthy man having as much difficulty getting into Heaven as a camel would if it tried to squeeze through the eye of a needle. But things tend to even out, and 19-year-old Thanapat Tuntisevekul has emerged on top of the Great Licence Plate Debate of 2014.
He’s the Assumption University law student who’s family gave him Bt50 million to bid on an especially “auspicious” licence plate coming up for auction through the Department of Land Transport. He got a bargain, paying only half that amount for plate number “1 Kor Kor 1111”. Still, no one had ever paid that much before for a rectangle of tin.
Thanapat then bolted his super-plate not to a Lamborghini or Rolls but to his Nissan Almera E CVT, a car that sells for Bt480,000. It says here on our calculator app that he could have bought at least 50 more Nissan Almeras for the price of that one licence plate.
Cue the social-media debate. An appalling waste of money on a licence plate, some said, even if it ostensibly goes to the government’s perennial (albeit not very successful) safe-driving campaign. What a poor little car to attach such a posh plate to, others said.
Now the positive spin:
Thanapat got to customise the plate. Evidently fearing that the number-letter combination might not be lucky enough, he added a can’t-miss graphic design called “Eight Horses on the River of Nine Gems”.
He can pass the plate on to his offspring – or sell it anytime he pleases. And, within a day, someone had offered him Bt35 million for it.
Affixing the plate to a modest little runabout rather than a Ferrari was perhaps the greatest stroke of genius, ensuring that everyone would be talking about his winning bid.
“He killed a lot of birds with one bullet,” Facebook user Adbulloh Kuno pointed out. “He’s now well known and has shown that his [family] business is doing well. The money went to a good cause. And he’s poised to earn even more money later!”
