Calling all budding DJs. There's a new night in town at which you can put your turntable skills to the test. Every Thursday at The Face, five spinmeisters will take to the decks for an hour each, after which votes can be cast either at a voting booth at the venue or online at www.taiwannights.com. A winner, who will be rewarded with free entry at The Face, other goodies and a pat on the back, will be announced monthly. To enter the affray send an e-mail to clubhousetaipei@yahoo.com.
And if you need some new tunes to dazzle the punters, Edmund is having a garage sale of sorts. Two thousand five hundred records running the gamut from breakbeat, progressive, house to tribal and techno are up for grabs.
Tomorrow Edmund will be playing at a new joint in town, Hub 20 at B1, 15, Minsheng E Rd Sec 5, Taipei (
PHOTO COURTESY OF TINA GIONIS
This bar is touted as a place for lounge lizards, and will feature house/electro vibes.
The biggest party this weekend is undoubtedly the British doyen of house John Digweed's gig at Luxy tomorrow night. The Loop is on a roll, racing through the top ranks of the world's best DJs and bringing them to Taiwan.
A few toes have been stepped on along the way though. Last week Taiwan's leading Chinese-language rag ran a story about the Tiesto bash at Nankang 101, which received widespread praise from those who attended. The club's neighbors, however, were not so impressed and filed noise complaints with the Environmental Protection Agency. Outside Nankang 101 the noise level was reportedly measured at 70 decibels, which according to the Noise Center of the League for the Hard of Hearing in the US is roughly the same level that a washing machine or lawn mower produces. The Loop has said it will issue a formal apology and will take extra precautions for future parties.
For a genre that is associated with hedonistic lifestyles, a lack of self-restraint, and loud music which annoys neighbors, many top DJs stay on track to produce quality work.
Digweed helped take house to the masses in the UK with Renaissance, and his Bedrock night at London's Heaven continues to rock the rafters, entry for which is a mere NT$290.
Tickets for tomorrow night's party at Luxy are NT$1,000.
When compared to other DJs who jack up the antics behind the turntables, Digweed is sometimes referred to as the moody DJ.
"I'm not moody, I'm just concentrating! I'm having the best time when I'm DJing, but I don't have an inane grin on my face," Digweed told the BBC in a recent interview.
Moving slightly off message, The Originals, Taipei's up and coming cover band with a twist, played a storming set at the Living Room last Saturday. Why is this in the Vinyl Word? SL hung up his decks for the evening and made a guest appearance, on keyboard.
In the mainstream view, the Philippines should be worried that a conflict over Taiwan between the superpowers will drag in Manila. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr observed in an interview in The Wall Street Journal last year, “I learned an African saying: When elephants fight, the only one that loses is the grass. We are the grass in this situation. We don’t want to get trampled.” Such sentiments are widespread. Few seem to have imagined the opposite: that a gray zone incursion of People’s Republic of China (PRC) ships into the Philippines’ waters could trigger a conflict that drags in Taiwan. Fewer
March 18 to March 24 Yasushi Noro knew that it was not the right time to scale Hehuan Mountain (合歡). It was March 1913 and the weather was still bitingly cold at high altitudes. But he knew he couldn’t afford to wait, either. Launched in 1910, the Japanese colonial government’s “five year plan to govern the savages” was going well. After numerous bloody battles, they had subdued almost all of the indigenous peoples in northeastern Taiwan, save for the Truku who held strong to their territory around the Liwu River (立霧溪) and Mugua River (木瓜溪) basins in today’s Hualien County (花蓮). The Japanese
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Whether you’re interested in the history of ceramics, the production process itself, creating your own pottery, shopping for ceramic vessels, or simply admiring beautiful handmade items, the Zhunan Snake Kiln (竹南蛇窯) in Jhunan Township (竹南), Miaoli County, is definitely worth a visit. For centuries, kiln products were an integral part of daily life in Taiwan: bricks for walls, tiles for roofs, pottery for the kitchen, jugs for fermenting alcoholic drinks, as well as decorative elements on temples, all came from kilns, and Miaoli was a major hub for the production of these items. The Zhunan Snake Kiln has a large area dedicated