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Chiang Mai favorite goes historical

Pop Ups

Plans laid for King Mengrai Day celebrations

Chiang Mai favorite goes historical

Richie Castro producing children’s cd

By Shana Kongmun
Chiang Mai boasts a plethora of venues with live music; from Guitarman with rock and roll to the Riva with acoustic and rock and roll. North Gate Jazz Club is a popular place for jazz lovers and Chai’s Blues House is the place to hear the blues. One popular musician in Chiang Mai started out at Guitarman over 6 years ago. Richie Castro had been playing in Europe for 3 years, Spain, Germany, every country except Portugal and Finland, he believes. He was on his way to Australia when he stopped over in Bangkok., finding Bangkok not his style, he gave Chiang Mai a try as it had been suggested by so many people. “Go to Chiang Mai, you will love it there”. And love it, he did. He stayed for 3 years before heading off for greener pastures, or rather greener paying pastures. He has returned to record his first CD of not just children’s music, but an interactive educational and fun musical tour of history. Called The History Hunter, Richie returned to Chiang Mai to record, not just because of the network of musicians he knew here and the quality of recording studios available but, of course, the fact that he had loved the place and the people since he first arrived.

Local favorite Richie Castro is launching a children’s cd.

Richie is a bundle of energy on stage; a talented musician and a fun and interesting performer who successfully engages his audience. He said he learned how to perform from his years of busking and performing throughout Europe.

Although he started out as an actor, even going so far as to move from his native Colorado to Los Angeles to get into the field. However, it was his time spent in Mexico, ostensibly to learn Spanish, that made him change direction and turn to music. Performing in Cancun on the party circuit wore him down, and that is when he headed for Europe.

But, the prospect of one more cold winter in Europe inspired him to head towards warmer climes. And like so many other expats living in Thailand it was the serendipitous coming together of fortuitous events that resulted in Richie showing up in Chiang Mai.

It was his time spent travelling around the United States working as a cultural story teller for schools that inspired him to create his new CD, however. The History Hunter features educational and fun songs about various historical figures, from woman pirate Anne Bonney to Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa, Australian folk hero and bank robber Ned Kelly and Thailand’s very own Ya Mo, also known as Thao Suranaree,the heroine of Korat.

Each song features the musical style of the country of origin, from African percussion to mariachis, he hopes that the music, combined with the accompanying comic book, much of it

His current return sees him performing live at the Riva every Friday night, much to local and expats enjoyment while he has been recording his new CD.

The launch party for the CD is March 27 at 9 PM and will feature performance art, with performers dressed in the costumes reflecting the songs on the CD. Sawan Music Pub on the Super Highway, opposite the CMU Art museum. Kids Party starts at 3 PM.

Pop Ups

By The Computer Quack
You are browsing a web site and all of a sudden a window pops up. It could be something innocuous, like an advert for cheap car loans, or it could be something more sinister like a link to a pornographic site.

You’ve never asked for these sites, so how do they appear? Normally it is spyware or adware that installs in your browser and routinely loads an advert at a preset time.

Most spyware or adware comes from the more “illegal” web sites, so there are plenty of reasons to avoid them. Whether it’s pornography, free software or movie and music downloads, many sites that offer these things are normally riddled with spyware and adware, and it’s so often heavily disguised that you won’t even know you’ve downloaded and installed it.

There are plenty of legitimate sites that launch pop-up adverts as well; they are more of an annoyance than anything else, but they also use up valuable bandwidth. The new version of Microsoft Internet Explorer contains a built in Pop-Up Blocker which will suppress much of this.

And a good spyware or adware scan will generally remove any illegal program that’s causing these, although some of them are notoriously difficult to remove. If you find something you can’t remove, try searching Google for ways to remove it, or you may even need to take your computer to your local PC shop and ask them for help.

Plans laid for King Mengrai Day celebrations

Representatives from work agencies, both public and private sectors, and the Foundation, attended the meeting in preparations for the upcoming day and celebration.

Jedsadapong Wongkiew
Phaya Mengrai or King Mengrai‘s Day celebration will be held on April 12 the Urban Development Foundation recently announced.

King Mengrai, who built Chiang Mai city 714 years ago, will be commemorated at the grand celebration, and then followed by a “tod pha pa” merit-making ceremony to raise funds for The Urban Development Institute Foundation. The funds proceeding from the “tod pha pa” merit-making ceremony will be used to help renovate the Chiang Mai City Creative Center, a learning resources center.

Along with the Chiang Mai Municipality, the Foundation and members of the private sector fund and manage the celebration to honor King Mengrai and celebrate the 714th anniversary of the city’s founding on April 12.

Dr. Duangchan Arphawatcharut, secretary of the Foundation noted that April 12, 1296 has been determined by historical records to be the day that King Mengrai built the city.

The Foundation annually organizes the anniversary celebration, marking the foundation day celebration, and also to educate about the foundation of Chiang Mai City and to understand more about the lives of those who originally inhabited Chiang Mai City, from slaves to aristocracy, shopkeepers to maids and about the King who played a vital role in the future of the city.

The April 12 Phaya Mengrai celebration will be held at the center on Ratchavithi Road, Tambon Sriphum from 6.30 p.m. – 12. 00 a.m.

On the day celebration, there will be a parade to honor King Mengrai, with offerings, lessons on the history of the city, and then the parade will move to the building where King Mengrai lived, near Wat Duangdee on Ratchadamnoen road.

After that the parade will move to the Chiang Mai City Creative Center for a Buddhist religious ceremony, offerings will be also presented to the nine Buddhist monks who attended the ceremony, and then the monks will be presented the meal for their luncheon on that day.

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