When Paul Gee took a big bottle of Tiger beer, more than half full, and
whacked Darren Jorde on the head with it last Saturday night, it was
certainly regrettable, but it wasn't just another bar fight. Gee is a part
owner and manager of Napoli, the infamous pub in Taichung that has provided
the stage for endless experimental jams by early Spring Scream bands,
including Dribdas, and generally led the way in nurturing Taichung's music
scene for most of the last eight years. Jorde is the bass player for Milk,
one of the biggest bands to ever come out of that scene.
The thing is, Gee has been managing day-to-day operations at Napoli for over
a year and a half now, since becoming a part owner. Previously, the pub had
been run by Luigi Castagnanova, a popular figure in Taichung who managed to
support local bands for years in a free and easy environment. Many feel that
Gee has changed that vibe, though a number of local bands do continue to
play regularly at Napoli.
Since the incident, Jorde has taken no legal action towards either Gee or
Napoli. Like his band mates, he is generally conciliatory and hopes to
resolve the situation with an establishment that has been something of a
Taichung landmark.
"I don't want to start a feud or anything," said Jorde, "Professionally and
personally, I just want to get over it." Castagnanova, who was at Napoli on
Wednesday night, echoed similar sentiments, saying he had spoken with Jorde
about the matter.
Napoli is located at 424 Hwa Mei St. in Taichung City (台中市華美街424
號). Bar brawls notwithstanding, there is free pizza from 10pm to 12am on
Thursdays.
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
The corruption cases surrounding former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are just one item in the endless cycle of noise and fuss obscuring Taiwan’s deep and urgent structural and social problems. Even the case itself, as James Baron observed in an excellent piece at the Diplomat last week, is only one manifestation of the greater problem of deep-rooted corruption in land development. Last week the government announced a program to permit 25,000 foreign university students, primarily from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, to work in Taiwan after graduation for 2-4 years. That number is a
This year’s Michelin Gourmand Bib sported 16 new entries in the 126-strong Taiwan directory. The fight for the best braised pork rice and the crispiest scallion pancake painstakingly continued, but what stood out in the lineup this year? Pang Taqueria (胖塔可利亞); Taiwan’s first Michelin-recommended Mexican restaurant. Chef Charles Chen (陳治宇) is a self-confessed Americophile, earning his chef whites at a fine-dining Latin-American fusion restaurant. But what makes this Xinyi (信義) spot stand head and shoulders above Taipei’s existing Mexican offerings? The authenticity. The produce. The care. AUTHENTIC EATS In my time on the island, I have caved too many times to
In the aftermath of the 2020 general elections the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was demoralized. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) had crushed them in a second landslide in a row, with their presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) winning more votes than any in Taiwan’s history. The KMT did pick up three legislative seats, but the DPP retained an outright majority. To take responsibility for that catastrophic loss, as is customary, party chairman Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) resigned. This would mark the end of an era of how the party operated and the beginning of a new effort at reform, first under