L11
diversions
Vol. 04 No. 10 | May 16-31, 2016
upcoming movies at Major Cineplex The Avenue Pattaya
music / new release
I Still Do – Eric Clapton
I Still Do is the 23rd solo studio album by the English rock musician Eric Clapton. The album will be released on May 20, 2016 through Clapton's own independent Bushbranch Records/ Surfdog Records label. The album features a combination of new material written by Clapton as well as cover versions of classic songs, contemporary tunes and influences the British recording artist interpreted in his own style. For the album, Clapton reunited with record producer Glyn Johns and had the album's artwork painted by Sir Peter Blake who also previously worked with Clapton. The album follows up to Clapton's global hit album The Breeze: An Appreciation of JJ Cale released in summer of 2014, his compilation album Forever Man released in spring of 2015 and his also commercially successful concert film and live album Slowhand at 70 – Live at the Royal Albert Hall released in late 2015.
Book Review by John K. Lindgren
Britain’s decline and fall
Nobody is quite sure when the British empire collapsed. At its peak, one in four of the world’s population technically owed allegiance to the British Crown. Oddly, the empire builders lost nearby Ireland as early as the 1920s whilst the far-flung parts
X-MEN: APOCALYPSE
WARCRAFT
Release Date May 19, 2016 Lead Actors James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence Director Bryan Singer Writers Simon Kinberg , Bryan Singer Genre Action | Adventure | Fantasy
Release Date May 26, 2016 Lead Actors Travis Fimmel, Ben Foster, Paula Patton Director Duncan Jones Writers Duncan Jones , Charles Leavitt Genre Action | Adventure | Fantasy
With the emergence of the world's first mutant, Apocalypse, the X-Men must unite to defeat his extinction level plan.
The peaceful realm of Azeroth stands on the brink of war as its civilization faces a fearsome race of invaders: orc warriors fleeing their dying home to colonize another. As a portal opens to connect the two worlds, one army faces destruction and the other faces extinction. From opposing sides, two heroes are set on a collision course that will decide the fate of their family, their people, and their home.
survived until after the second world war. A huge blow was in 1947 when Indian and Pakistani independence was granted. 1956 was another death-dealing moment when the UK and France invaded Suez, only to withdraw soon afterwards. The death agony itself took place in Hong Kong in 1997 when the province was handed over to China as the last governor Chris Patten shed a tear. Piers Brandon (Decline and Fall of the British Empire 17811997, Cape) starts his masterly dialogue in 1781 with the defeat of the British at Yorktown which led to the independence of the American colonies. At about the same time, Edward Gibbon published his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire which explained that particular collapse with reference to the “bishops and the barbarians”. Author Brandon believes that the publication of Gibbon’s work set the notional scene in the 19th and 20th centuries for the many challenges to British rule overseas which inevitably led to collapse. Brandon’s book emphasizes that the British empire, even at its height, was always a ramshackle affair which was run from the Colonial Office with its rickety chairs and gin-swilling officials who often let its governors overseas do as they please. Running an empire meant a lot of bloodshed. Hundreds of British women and children during the Indian mutiny of 1857 were forced to lap blood from the slaughterhouse floor at Cawnpore before being strangled to death by slow hanging. In the Zulu war of 1879 British soldiers were literally shredded by enemy swords, whilst the British in turn founded concentration camps in the Boer war which led to 160,000 white civilians being incarcerated in atrocious conditions. During the first world war, hundreds of thousands of Canadians, Indians and Australians lived in trenches which rapidly turned into cemeteries. Brendan shows that the chaos of war made it virtually impossible to keep the British empire together. Even when British politicians offered self-government as a way of preventing utter collapse, the will for complete independence never faltered. In
BRITANNIA By SIMON SCARROW 9781472233868 When Macro’s patrols report that the natives in the vicinity of the garrison are thinning out, a terrible suspicion takes shape in the battle-scarred soldier’s mind. Has the acting Governor, Legate Quintatus, underestimated the enemy? If there is a sophisticated and deadly plan afoot, it’s Cato and his men who will pay the price...
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many African countries, massacres were commonplace and in Rhodesia a savage conflict erupted between white racists and the black majority which ended only in 1965. In Malaya in the 1950s, the British declared a state of emergency and conducted a campaign against Chinese communist terrorists. But to no avail: Britain lost. It’s not all serious stuff. Brandon delights us with thumb-nail sketches of Britain’s oddball imperialists. The notorious Richard Burton liked to boast he had indulged in every crime and vice under the sun, whilst general Orde Wingate used to give interviews whilst combing his naked body hair with a toothbrush. Jomo Kenyatta drank Nubian gin to excess and had so many sexual adventures that he was suspended from church membership. Even Mahatma Gandhi provides a few tidbits: a compound of oriental mystic and crank interspersed with humility asnd the ability to be an advocate. “I wonder if the Romans ever went back to visit Britain?” asked Mr Nehru when he received a visit from prime minister Macmillan in India in 1958. At all events, the Romans like the British revisited their empire through the medium of history-writing. Piers Brandon has produced a remarkable testament to how fascinating such excursions can be. Given the ramshackle nature of the British empire, the real wonder is just how Britain managed to acquire an empire in the first place. Perhaps there was a lot of good luck and the fact that British sailors tended to discover the ends of the earth before anyone else could arrive there. It has been said that Britain lost an empire and has not managed to find another role, a phenomenon known as postcolonial blues. Young men can no longer join the army to see the world and imperialists are out of favour in an age of equal rights for all. When you wander round south Pattaya and see all those British flags hanging outside certain restaurants and bars, bear in mind that their owners are post-colonial pioneers. The British can no longer conquer countries, but there’s nothing to stop them opening a business and hoisting the flag out of the second-storey premises.
LONELY PLANET ULTIMATE TRAVELIST COLOURING BOOK 9781760344207 This colouring book has sights that will humble you, amaze you and surprise you. And in these pages, these places are yours to re-imagine however you desire. Let your creativity guide you. Be playful; be inventive. Allow your mind to wander. Allow it to empty itself entirely. Above all else, be inspired by the extraordinary places our planet has to offer.