The Vinyl Word promotes love not war, but the "rumble in Hsinchu" last month at the Pig & Whistle is still causing waves in the city and on local Web forums.
Principally, it was alleged that three Canadians and three South Africans were attacked by gangsters in an argument over a girl. The Pig & Whistle confirmed there was an incident in the early hours of May 23 incident "when a handful of our patrons were injured." A meeting was set by the pub at Bar 4Q2 on Tuesday to clear up the situation, where it was alleged six or seven foreigners and three Taiwanese ended up at hospital for treatment.
The Vinyl Word called the pub for comment, but was redirected to the manager Tim Clarke in China, who did not answer either of the phone numbers given. One of the alleged victims of the attack was contacted through forumosa.com, but did not get back to us before press time. There is a video of the incident at the police station but no charges have been made.
PHOTO: JULES QUARTLY, TAIPEI TIMES
Moving on, thankfully, from war to peace, the Booty on the Beach party last Saturday at Baishawan (白沙灣) managed to get all the elements right. The weather was great (a bright quarter moon and stars, a golden dawn); the DJs played good sets; the promoters kept it safe and cheap (NT$50 for a beer); and the vibe was harmonious.
"When you put your heart and soul into something and it works out (almost) perfectly, you feel like the sky is the limit," organizer Marcus Aurelius said before jetting off to the US for a break. People even cleaned up the beach afterward. It was the party Kenting should be and once was. No hassle from the police, just happy people.
Tonight and tomorrow the self-described "most natural dance percussionist in the world," will be be accompanying the house DJ's at Ministry of Sound, 310 Lequn 3rd Rd, Neihu, Taipei (台北市內湖區樂群三路310號).
Urbanpeople.net is launching its Web site with a party on Monday night at VS: B1, 208, Sec 2, Fuxing S Rd, Taipei (
One of the city's oldest DJ bars is reopening tonight. DV8 at 223 Jinhua Street, Taipei (
Finally, DJ Joe Ho has got it goin' on, with his first album this month, a six-date CD release tour of the island and more projects in the mix. Tomorrow night he is at Luxy, 5F, 201 Zhongxiao E Road, Sec 4, Taipei (
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
April 15 to April 21 Yang Kui (楊逵) was horrified as he drove past trucks, oxcarts and trolleys loaded with coffins on his way to Tuntzechiao (屯子腳), which he heard had been completely destroyed. The friend he came to check on was safe, but most residents were suffering in the town hit the hardest by the 7.1-magnitude Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake on April 21, 1935. It remains the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history, claiming around 3,300 lives and injuring nearly 12,000. The disaster completely flattened roughly 18,000 houses and damaged countless more. The social activist and
Over the course of former President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 11-day trip to China that included a meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping (習近平) a surprising number of people commented that the former president was now “irrelevant.” Upon reflection, it became apparent that these comments were coming from pro-Taiwan, pan-green supporters and they were expressing what they hoped was the case, rather than the reality. Ma’s ideology is so pro-China (read: deep blue) and controversial that many in his own Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hope he retires quickly, or at least refrains from speaking on some subjects. Regardless
Approaching her mid-30s, Xiong Yidan reckons that most of her friends are on to their second or even third babies. But Xiong has more than a dozen. There is Lucky, the street dog from Bangkok who jumped into a taxi with her and never left. There is Sophie and Ben, sibling geese, who honk from morning to night. Boop and Pan, both goats, are romantically involved. Dumpling the hedgehog enjoys a belly rub from time to time. The list goes on. Xiong nurtures her brood from her 8,000 square meter farm in Chiang Dao, a mountainous district in northern Thailand’s