His latest album, Head Full of Pictures, deals with the US' current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The title song refers to post traumatic stress disorder and is told in the voice of a returning soldier. “At the end he says that he knows who put him in this position, who it was who made the war and used him as a tool,” Page wrote Monday in an e-mail. “And he says that he might get smart and do something about it.”
Also free is a series of documentaries and lectures, as well as workshops led by several of the artists who will be performing at the festival. These will take place in Huashan Culture Park (華山文化園區) tomorrow and Sunday, and run from 11am to 5pm. For English speakers, on Sunday at 11am, there is the sequel to acclaimed filmmaker Dick Fontaine's Bombin' (Hip-Hop History II). Following that are two Chinese-language documentaries involving Lenny Guo and the Blackbirds.
Huashan will also host a flea market on Saturday and Sunday, and a singing competition starting at 3pm on Sunday for Taiwan's Southeast Asian migrant workers.
The above describes only a small sampling of events scheduled for this week, some of which are only tangentially related to the theme of “crossings” and can be better understood as falling under the theme of human rights. It is highly recommended that those interested in attending visit the Web site www.treesmusic.com, which contains directions, summaries and artists' bios in clearly written English and Chinese.
The theme of human rights comes to the fore at Migration Plus, a series of paid events that starts Monday night at Underworld (地下社會), on Shida Road, with a DJ party led by Serbian director Boris Mitic. (Mitic's documentary Pretty Dyana — A Gypsy Recycling Saga will be shown at 11am Saturday at Huashan). NT$200 tickets for the party can be purchased at the door.
Tuesday afternoon at 3pm, Cheung Chui-yung (張翠容), a freelance journalist from Hong Kong who worked for the BBC and has also covered the Middle East and Latin America, will host a panel discussion on human rights and reporting from war zones. The other speakers will be Takashi Morizumi, the first Japanese reporter to write about the use of depleted uranium during the first Gulf War, and Nahoko Takato, a humanitarian worker who made headlines when she was kidnapped by militants in Iraq. There will also be documentary screenings and a photo exhibition.
Tuesday night, Lenny Guo and the Blackbirds, who released their final album in 2000, will reunite for a concert at Huashan that starts at 7pm. Joining them will be Page, avant-garde Belgian rockers DAAU and Chung Yong-feng (種永豐), a poet known for his activism and collaboration with the Labor Exchange Band.
Tuesday's Migration Plus events at Huashan cost NT$500. Tickets are available at www.artstickets.com.tw.
Page, DAAU, Chung and the Blackbirds will also play Wednesday night at the Experimental Theatre of the Chiayi Performance Arts Center (嘉義縣表演藝術中心實驗劇場). NT$250 tickets for this concert are available at www.artsticket.com.tw.
For more information, visit www.treesmusic.com/festival/2006mmf/index.htm.
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