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Let me see if I can help. On Nov. 25, I inadvertently posted an article in this (the Gay Thailand forum) that I had intended to post in the Beer Bar forum. When I discovered my error a few minutes later, I had two options: leave it where it was or move the post to the Beer Bar. I chose the latter. So as not to leave readers wondering where the OP had gone, I wrote See Beer Bar CP Cuts flights in hopes that they would interpret this to mean that the post could now be found in the Beer Bar. I also counted on the revised headline "MOVED" would indicate that the OP had been moved. Thanks for bringing this to my attention. Sorry for any confusion it may have caused. This happens from time to time. Since once a post it made, it cannot be deleted but only edited within one hour of posting.

Adored West Side Story. Amazing to hear CNN this evening telling viewers he wrote the music. That will be news to Leonard Bernstein's children! Not sure if Stephen Spielberg's new movie version out next month will be a success. I hope so as it will bring the show to a totally new audience. But his version of another classic, J. M Barrie's Peter Pan, was a disaster. I suppose not really interesting now but all four creators of West Side Story were gay. I know Bernstein was married but it was very much a marriage of convenience - essential if he wanted to get the job as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic. He had been almost outrageously gay before the marriage, and soon after they tied the knot his wife wrote a letter to him saying, "I know you are homosexual and may never change," but she was prepared to accept that. Saw Gypsy in London 6 years ago with the wonderful Imelda Staunton in the title role. I had just arrived in London and maybe I was suffering from jetlag but I just did not enjoy the whole evening. And I'm a bit of a musicals junkie!

Sondheim revolutionised the musicals genre even more I believe than Rodgers and Hammerstein II. Indeed it was Hammerstein who first noticed him and helped encourage him. I was fortunate in having a dear friend in London who adored musicals. He gave me my first Sondheim experience with the London production of Company featuring the Broadway original performers: Larry Kert in the lead role of Bobby and the legendary Elaine Stritch whose "Ladies Who Lunch" remains seared on my memory. We then saw A Little Night Music with the wonderful pairing of Jean Simmons and Hermione Gingold. "Send in the Clowns" from that show became his one worldwide hit. Unlike Lloyd Webber Sondheim was not especially interested in beautiful melodies. Whereas Lloyd Webber always wrote the music first and then had lyrics added to it, for Sondheim the lyrics and the detail in those lyrics were the absolute key to how he wrote a song. A struggling London producer who was to become a close friend and collaborator on future Sondheim shows, Cameron Mackintosh (later to produce the four great blockbusters CATS, Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera and Miss Saigon), then mounted a low budget evening of songs by Sondheim titled Side by Side by Sondheim - a reference to one of the songs from Company. This was a total joy. On Broadway I was later to see Sweeney Todd with Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury. I enjoyed it so much I returned a second time. Although Company remains my favourite, a close second is Follies which I saw again on Broadway in the 2001 revival. A truly wonderful evening. It is a difficult show to produce almost anywhere requiring as it does effectively two casts - a group of 60/70 year old singer/dancers who used to perform in a variation of the famous Ziegfeld Follies and return for a reunion. They appear alongside a younger group performing as ghosts of their former selves. I wish I had seen more. I have several on CD but nothing beats the live stage experience for me. To say he was in a class by himself and that he revolutionised musical theatre is superfluous. He was quite simply a ground-breaking genius. Most will remember him with "Send in the Clowns". I prefer his much more gritty "Ladies who Lunch" which really can only be sung Elaine Stritch. It's a song filled with mockery about the bitterness, boredom, wasteful lives and fondness for alcohol of rich society ladies who really have nothing meaningful in those lives. Just listen to the mournful opening phrases and then the biting satire of the lyric. Magical!

There simply is no evidence yet that the COVID vaccine does or does no react to this new variant. They say we will know in a couple of weeks after studies are done.

So many great memories from my yearly years until today. https://edition.cnn.com/2021/11/26/entertainment/stephen-sondheim/index.html

Surprising to me that Early in his career, Sondheim wrote the lyrics for two shows considered to be classics of the American stage, “West Side Story” (1957) and “Gypsy” (1959). “West Side Story,” with music by Leonard Bernstein, transplanted Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” to the streets and gangs of modern-day New York. “Gypsy,” with music by Jule Styne, told the backstage story of the ultimate stage mother and the daughter who grew up to be Gypsy Rose Lee.

same-same but different!

From Bangkok Post Thailand will no longer have a curfew starting next month after lifting the nighttime ban being enforced in the last remaining six provinces as part of the measures to revitalise the economy and tourism sector. https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2222199/ccsa-ends-curfew-eases-more-curbs-to-bolster-tourism

Chi is impressive!

I am booked for January, but this is an obvious concern and although my initial reaction was to cancel everything, have an immediate nervous breakdown and then join a monastery, I try and look at it like this: We are stuck with this pandemic/endemic - its not going to go away any time soon, if ever, and mutations will come and go, some being of more concern than others. So I either join that monastery and commit to an ongoing life of perpetual celibacy, or else I proceed with my trip, and maybe subsequent ones next year, and accept the fact that everything is fluid and subject to possible change until I am on the flight itself, and then just hope that I can enjoy my stay and return home without interruptions.

Another potential good news for those still considering travelling to thailand. In summary, proposal to change the requirement from pcr on arrival to antigen rapid test. Lets hope itll pass https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2221647/entering-thailand-may-get-easier-next-month

we have two choices : to allow ourselves to be scared to death by every news coming from here and there well before their possible severity is confirmed or vaccinate ourselves , wear mask and try to live our lives as close to normal as we can. I opt for a second option if only because none of my enemies got so far seriously sick with covid nevermind died from it, so if they survived barely scratched so must I.

when you consider that in price is included PRC test which is quite costly and deduct it form total price you paid suddenly deals become much sweeter.

All hotels that offers the 1 day quarantine will have normal bookings too. Agreed that travellers should read and check, but hotel shouldnt provide misleading details that the traveller can use to apply for the thailand pass. I believe both are definitely at faults, and thai officials also inst exactly blameless too as the requirements set were still too complicated and changed too frequently.

No. I have yet to meet the guy with a dick to his knee. I will meet him this weekend when we go. Here are his pics. Looks like I'm going to need a VERY STRONG BOTTLE OF POPPERS.

aren't wats open till late ?

I sure don't want to go back to the shelter in place style of living. But then, I don't want COVID either. I think traveling will take a back seat. Again.