PeterRS

From its name and location in Quezon City, this sounds like the reincarnation of the huge 690 Quezon Strip bar of the 1980s. Then it was the most raunchy gay venue in the city and so well known all you had to say to a taxi drivr was 690 and he knew exacty where to take you. But I am sure it has changed although lots of good looking guys on their website. I suspect nudity and soap bubble shows on the cat walks may be out, but worth checking it out.

I am sure thee are several instances of bar owners committing suicide, sadly. Can you recall the name of the bar? And the owner? I can find nothing on the internet, whereas i know Andrew Drummond wrote about the Lanna Lavender disaster which also took place in 2009/2010.

Doi Inthanon is certainly worth a visit. It has at least two waterfalls.

Interesting article, and it does reinforce the suggestion that the 1996 fire resulted in only "minimal" damage. That surely could not have meant a wall collapsing. This all took place well after the dreadful days of the main AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and early 1990s as medication was then avaivable to sufferers. It also reinforces the fact that the Club had by that time become popular with non-gays. So why the then owners changed to an all straight disco remains a complete mystery - unless any other member has some more facts. Like @khaolakguy I'd love to know more about their departure from Bangkok and their deaths. I also am sure the name "Rome Club" continued for some years after that fire. I seem to remember quite clearly that it was in operation around 2000. However, the information I had hoped to find - the actual date of Rome Club's closing - is not mentioned. It also fails to mention that the premises were taken over by others and that Roxy was at least one if its reincarnations. I know that for a fact as I was dating one of the young professional dancers in 2003 when they moved over to Roxy. That group had started out in Soi Twilight's X-Treme Bar. When that closed in 2002, the group was taken on by the bars across the soi that the German owned. I think they were there for about six months before then moving on to Roxy. But it also lasted little more than six months. I suspect that story referred to the Lanna Lavender Hotel in Chiang Mai. Around 2009 a businessman named Jay Gregson took over the very large old Tokyo Hotel at the northwest of the moat and renamed it. He announced that it was to become the gayest haven in the country, a "gay man's utopia" according to the PR, a place where gay men could stay, enjoy indoor and outdoor restaurants, have a lap pool, a massage spa with willing attendants, and in the basement a glitzy show named Powerboys. His basic problem, though, was that the hotel was massively too large. The hotel had 11 floors, 110 rooms and he announced five different quality of rooms from Deluxe Plus down to Budget. But he ran very short of funds. He was only able to renovate the upper floors and there were quite a number of reports on various sites about guests having to be relocated to those upper floors as the quality of the cheaper ones was very poor. A friend and I had dinner in the lovely open space above about Floor 3. But we had to send the bill back twice after they had miscalculated the cost of our meal and drinks. Thereafter we went to the basement to see the show at Powerboys which we found extremely good even though there was no nudity. We actually thought it was better than any show in the many Bangkok bars we had been to. Most of the cast were students from the nearby university. But again that show venue was massively too large. At least 100 fixed seats with a bar to the side. He was running two shows a night when we were there. I doubt if we saw more than 12 other customers. The hotel did not last long. The owner, allegedly as a result of money issues, killed himself in his home not much more than six months after it opened. The hotel closed soon thereafter. If only he had chosen a hotel one quarter of the size, he could perhaps have made a go of it. But it was very sad both for him and the gay movement in Chiang Mai. The announcemnt of the opening of the hotel can be found on this link - https://www.chiangmaicitylife.com/citylife-articles/special-scoop-lavender-lanna-hotel/

I work on a Mac desktop. Pressing the control and then += key easily increases the size, several times if necessary.

My memory is slightly different. After it dispensed with the gay label, it soon changed the name from Rome Club. But it never reverted back to it. I believe it had two other names, Roxy being one. I cannot recall the other. I do not recall the joint wall with Balcony being damaged nor of Balcony closing. But the new Rome Club venue was never the same after it changed to a straight disco. Why the owners wanted it to become a straight disco has always mystified me, if only because it as already attacting quite a mixed crowd.

It's not the first and it won't be the last, but a new statue has appeared on the Mall in Washington showing Trump embracing Epstein in a pose similar to that between the two lovers at the front of the movie Titanic. I am sure Trump is delighted that his war in Iran has just temporarily made American citizens forget that his name appears thousands of times in the Epstein files and still no-one American citizen has been charged with Epstein's crimes. Photo: Mehmet Esser/SOPA Images/Shutterstock https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/11/titanic-statue-trump-epstein-national-mall

As reported in the New York Times and repeated this morning in the Guardian, it now seems certain it was a US targeting failure that resulted in the murder of 175 young girls and teachers as a result of the tomahawk missile in Minab at the start of the war. We can be certain Trump and his acolytes will deny, deny and continue denying. But the evidence now seems certain to show these would be yet more lies. According to the New York Times, quoting unnamed US officials and others familiar with the initial findings, the investigation has concluded that the strike on 28 February on the Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school building was the result of a targeting mistake by the US military planners. It is a reminder if one was needed that hasty planning will result in such disasters. In Belgrade in 1999 military planners targetted five guided missile bombs which hit the Chinese Embassy but were suposed to be aimed at the headquarters of the Yugoslav weapons importer 440 meters south on the same road. On that occasion CIA director George Tenet claimed the CIA had "miscalculated". https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/11/iran-war-missile-strike-elementary-school

The Jeremy Thorpe/Norman Scott scandal enlivined British political life quite considerably. Thorpe had risen to become leader of the Liberal Party and was well liked around the country. Secretly gay, he had married and had a child to give his chances of higher office greater credibility. After his young wife died in a car crash, he married a pianist named Marion Harewood who had recently been divorced from the Earl of Harwood, a first cousin of Queen Elizabeth. Harwood had been having a secret affair which produced a son and this increased the scandal element no end. Many knew of Thorpe's homosexual trysts but nothing was done about them. With Scott thretening to go publlic about their relationship, it was Thorpe's ego and determination to get rid of Scott that proved his downfall. The way he went about it was the stuff of the cheapest of cheap thrillers. The man hired to kill Scott instead killed Scott's dog. The hired killer was then jailed for two years. But when he came out of prison he sold the whole story to a prominent tabloid which this time did print the it. Thorpe and three of hs associates were then committed for trial at London's Old Bailey in 1979. Their trial was another cheap thriller. The judge was clearly biased, totally on the side of Thorpe and scathing in terms of the prosecution witnesses. Unsurprisginly the jury acquitted the accused. The judge was roundly condemned and the satirist Peter Cook produced a much admired video in which he gave his view of the judge's summing up. The vdo cannot be embedded but click and copy the link to see Cook's masterly performance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kyos-M48B8U

Just as the bombing of Iran has hit the headlines, a huge 250 kg WWII British bomb has been discovered in Dresden forcing the evacuation of much of the centre of the city. 18,000 residents. commuters and tourists have already been evacuated. The old town includes many buidings destroyed in the war and only finally rebuilt this century. They include the glorious Frauenkirche, the Semper Opera - one of the finest in the world - and many other major buildings. The fire bombing of Dresden on the night of 13 February 1945 remains one of the most contentious allied actions of WWII. The hope is obviously that the bomb disposal squads will auccessfully defuse the newly discovered bomb https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1781gr5n9go Part of the old town in central Dresden The interior and ceiling of the Frauenkirche The exterior of the Semper Opera

Not sure how the last pic ended where it did - clearly my error. It is the exterior of the Golestan Palace in Teheran.

Under international law, in war cultural stes are protected. That I suspect is one reason why the US took Kyoto off the list of possible sites for the first nuclear bomb. Now in Iraq, the US and israel are paying no attention to international law. One of Teheran's cultural glories and one of its oldest historical sites, the Golestan Palace, is now said to be in virtual ruins. The world renowned Naqsh-e-Jahan Square in Isfahan, the glory of that city, has bombs falling nearby. These cultural sites are precious to all Iranians. In my view, bombing them will only hasten their resolve to continue fighting Trump and Netanyahu's war. Video in this link. https://edition.cnn.com/2026/03/10/world/video/iranian-state-media-damaged-historical-and-cultural-sites-airstrike-gharagozlou-ldn-digvid Golestan palace before the war Sites in Isfahan's huge main square

I do not necessarily support it either. But facts are facts. Britain had decades and decades to introduce democracy in Hong Kong. It decided not to do so. Then at the last possible moment several years after formal international Agreements between Britain and China had been signed and registered, Britain through its last Governor made a unilateral decision to change a key part of those Agreements.Those in charge at Westminster were perfectly aware of what China would do - and so will not have been in the slightest surprised when China then did what it said it would do. I feel for the people of Hong Kong, many of whom remain as good friends. I and they have no doubt whatever that had Patten not unliaterally changed key elements of the two Agreements, Hong Kong would today have greater democracy in terms of electing the Chief Executive and the members of the Legislative Council - granted a slower form of democracy but precisely as outlined in the exact wording in the Agreements which Patten tore up. But there is one more issue that has not been aired in the discussion so far. Hone Kong has about 7 million people. The assumption of many who know little about Hong Kong, is the assumptin that they know that democracy should have been introduced and would be welcomed by all. But they conveniently forget that there are millions in Hong Kong who are in fact pro-Beijing. They did not like the way the British ran Hong Kong. The Board of one company of which I was CEO in the 1980s had several pro-Beijing members, notwithstanding the chaos of the Cultural Revolution which had recently ended. Nothing in Hong Kong is as simple as saying Hong Kong people want democracy. Many don't!

It takes one to know one!

Even before Telephone Bar, Balcony Bar and Sphinx, Soi 4 had one of the great dance clubs - Rome Club. Originally named the Siamese Doll Bar, by 1975 it was the 'in' place in Soi 4. I don't think it had discotheque in its title but it certainly was a disco and played great music. And how gay men of all ages thronged to it - and some girls as well! It was packed many nights of the week. It ran very successfully for many years until the owner decided for some reason to change the name around the end of the 1990s. I think it's name changed to Roxy and for a time around 2003 it hosted the group of professional dance students which had originated in Soi Twlight's X-Treme Bar. But the Club very quickly went down hill and then closed. There was indeed a somewhat mysterious fire in the building in 1996 but the building certainly did not burn down. I think @mauRICE may be thinking about the ghastly disco fire in the Santika disco in Ekkamai in 2009 when 67 were killed and a further 222 injured. Discos were hugely popular in the mid-1980s and 1990s, and then with few exceptions the fad seemed to die off. Who now remembers the massive Ministry of Sound, a disco that lasted little more than a year, or the much more fashionable upmarket Bed Supper Club which closed in 2013?