The organizer's Web site said the AgeHa party last Saturday at Nankang 101 was Taipei's first luxury party. That's quite a claim to live up to. Boys dressed in camp chaps, muscles slicked with oil serving tequila shots from plastic cups at NT$200 a pop (a NT$50 surcharge compared to the bar price), a human cigarette vending machine in the form of a roller girl, a basement dance floor advertised as a dark room, pole dancers and go go boys — it was a grand attempt at party luxe.
The crew from Tokyo's mega club that throws off-the-hook parties came to town and although the bash didn't attract as many punters as Tiesto's show at the same venue in April, it was impressive nevertheless.
Six girls, dressed up in feathers and high heels put on a spectacular show atop the bar, and a troupe of eight dancers naked from the waist up, wearing trousers made of fabric leaves, took to the mini stage in the center of the main dance floor and drew gasps of appreciation with a tight performance that combined break-dance moves with contemporary dance choreography.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF AGEHA AND LUXY
On the stage right second floor balcony, members of the press pack trained their cameras on the crowd and reported their findings on the local networks. Before the party got going around 1am the film crews were either lounging around looking like they'd rather be somewhere else on a Saturday night, or were nipping to the bar and joining in the fun.
Despite the amusements, frivolity, and quality tunes to boot, a few revelers grumbled about the admission price, which was NT$1,200 at the door or NT$1,000 in advance. Decadence doesn't come cheap.
Meanwhile, on paper, everything for last Saturday's Corona Summer Jam Pool Party at the Howard Plaza Hotel looked good. The two hottest promotion companies in Taiwan, Luxy and Liquid Lifestyles! Machi! A gorgeous, sunny day! A recipe for success if ever there was one.
But something was amiss. Instead of the sweaty, bikini-clad mob you'd expect, there were only a dozen or so partygoers. Evidently, people were scared away by the NT$800 ticket price and the 90-minute drive to Green Bay. So, while the promoters tried their hardest to liven things up, giving away free beer and BBQ food, there just weren't enough people to make it a party. The DJs' fresh hip-hop sets fell on few ears. No one wanted to be that first, adventurous person on the dance floor.
The party continued in this manner until, finally, Machi graced the stage. The boys were the highlight of the party, giving an upbeat performance despite the small crowd in front of them. Their energy was infectious. Soon, people were dancing, cheering and having a good time. But it was all over far too soon. Afterwards, only lick-off-whip-cream and chug-a-beer contests remained. At 9pm, the props, sound system, and BBQ were whisked away and partygoers were stuck, stranded in Green Bay searching for cabs.
Reports have reached the Vinyl Word that a fire badly damaged Liquid Lounge in Taichung on Monday morning, forcing the late night hot spot to close. As a result, the Cut'n Blow party, scheduled for tomorrow night at the venue is to be held at Escape, which has been renovated. The party begins at 11pm with Coffey, Declan, Hooker and Kris in the mix. Escape is located at 45-2 Chunggang Rd Sec 2, Taichung (台中中港路二段45-2號).
The pool parties at CM Swimming Club in Shilin are no more. After legal wrangling the swimming pool has closed.
Laserman, a star of the show at Tiesto's last performance in Taiwan, is back for a mini tour of the island. He will perform his light extravaganza at Lion King in Taichung tonight and at Fusion in Tainan tomorrow.
At Luxy tonight, Hipp-E is to play his last set as the club's Sabbatical “scholar.”
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