What looks like a slow week in club land is really just the city sitting low, hushed in anticipation of the upcoming Jay-Z concert. When a man of Jay's stature comes to town, nobody else can hold a candle to his ability to draw. Promoter's island-wide are doing the smart thing and saving their best for next weekend's Halloween madness.
That said, things aren't totally barren in club-land this weekend. The hottest ticket in town after Jay-Z's concert will, of course, be the official Jay-Z after-party at Plush. Featuring the three time DMC Champion skills of DJ Craze, this celebrity laden, red-carpet affair is going to be huge. All you ghetto fabulous types better get your white shoes buffed, platinum shined up, and suit jacket ironed for this night. Damage is NT$800 for guys and NT$500 for ladies, but a ticket stub from the Jay-Z concert gets you in for free before midnight.
For those who aren't mega-players, or don't pretend to be, VT Art Salon is starting a new weekly music night, Caress — Music Without Boundaries. Tired of the 100 percent hip-hop only, all-the-time climate of the city's clubs, promoters ESP Productions hope to foster an intimate space that plays music other venues “don't dare to play.” This Saturday, for only NT$400, which includes one drink, DJ Saucey and Hooker warm things up for adventurous music lovers.
Then in Neihu on the same night, MoS is hosting a We Love Breaks party. In most countries of the world, including Taiwan, house and trance are the biggest genres of electronic music. Not so in Australia. There, breaks rule the scene, with the genre's leaders playing stadium-sized tours (Krafty Kuts) and winning Most Popular International DJ awards (Adam Freeland).
It's fitting, then, that one of Australia's long-time breaks warriors, Phil K, is headlining. Nowadays, Phil is no longer just in his home country, but on the international stage, too, pushing his mix of progressive and breaks in England, China, and more. A wizard with the Pioneer 600M mixer and DVJX-1, there's a reason why the Kster is the most famous breaks DJ in a nation that grows them like weeds. Go to MoS on Saturday and you'll find out why. It'll cost you the regular fare at MoS: NT$600 before 12am and NT$800 afterwards.
But realistically, all genres are outdated. Breaks, House, Trance, Techno, Hip-hop: Each and every one is bleeding into one another. Accordingly, DJs the world over are getting wise to the game and jamming as many loud, bombastic genre-jumping tunes together in order to create a non-stop party.
The trend has hit Taiwan's shores, too, as evidenced by Kaohsiung resident, Rob Solo's new mix, Strictly Booty vol.4: Music for French Kissing, Heavy Petting and Dry Humping. Starting out with some played-out hip-hop mash ups (Please! No more of the Beastie Boys' Hey Ladies!), things progress into bhangra, funky show tunes (Shack Up (Wiseguys Edit)), nu school acid breaks, B-More, Baille Funk, and, finally, Ghetto-tech (DJ Godfather's Who Shake the Best).
A gaggle of genres with one thing in common: they are all upbeat, crassly party-oriented tunes. At times, Solo's mixing is awkward, but really, smooth mixing isn't the point here. The point is to create a debauched, raucous mix perfect for that early-AM house party. And Rob Solo has successfully achieved that with SB4. He'll officially release the CD on Nov. 11 in Kaohsiung, and then in Taipei the following week. Keep an eye on this space for details.
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
In a stark demonstration of how award-winning breakthroughs can come from the most unlikely directions, researchers have won an Ig Nobel prize for discovering that mammals can breathe through their anuses. After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure. The team is among 10 recognized in this year’s Ig Nobel awards (see below for more), the irreverent accolades given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” They are not
This Qing Dynasty trail takes hikers from renowned hot springs in the East Rift Valley, up to the top of the Coastal Mountain Range, and down to the Pacific Short vacations to eastern Taiwan often require choosing between the Rift Valley with its pineapple fields, rice paddies and broader range of amenities, or the less populated coastal route for its ocean scenery. For those who can’t decide, why not try both? The Antong Traversing Trail (安通越嶺道) provides just such an opportunity. Built 149 years ago, the trail linked up these two formerly isolated parts of the island by crossing over the Coastal Mountain Range. After decades of serving as a convenient path for local Amis, Han settlers, missionaries and smugglers, the trail fell into disuse once modern roadways were built