New Year's Eves are always meant to be the mother of all club nights on the annual calendar, but, increasingly, extortionate DJ fees and the associated hike on cover charges, as well as the prospect of having to mingle with every clubber and his glow-stick, mean that, quite possibly, clubs and their punters have their eyes on the rest of the year for real entertainment value. Luxy, quite wisely, saw in the New Year not with a superstar DJ but the residents playing some good tunes but with a smaller than usual crowd; Champagne 3 was reportedly busier though, that, however, may have been an optical illusion given the smaller size of the venue itself. It seems that many people simply chose to avoid the bigger clubs and opt for more intimate house parties instead: a combination of a lack of taxis in the city, two-hour queues for the MRT, and the usual (and, in the event, unfounded) rumors of planned police raids put people off.
The first week of January is predictably quiet in clubland, as everyone takes a well-deserved rest from the hedonism of the other 50-odd weeks of the year. However, for those not yet satiated or for those who mean to start as they go on, a couple of things are a'happening around town.
Luxy's Sabbatical takes a couple of weeks off from its normal system of bringing over an international name. Promoter Dominik Tyliszczak, aka Hooker, says that the strategy reflects the post-New Year lull, though the decision is not simply financial: "It's hard to drag people out dancing for the first couple of weeks of January, and having someone come over and play to an empty room doesn't make sense: it's no fun for them and doesn't really show what we're doing. Also, it gives us a chance to let our local talent shine through which is important if we want to grow the scene here." Local talent is indeed showcased with residents Scotty Baller, Coffee, Hooker, and Junior and Megan on rotation over the next fortnight or so.
PHOTO COURTESY OF DIGIAHI
For something a bit more avant-garde, The Wall present New Zealand/Taiwanese band Digihai on Friday night. The six-piece ensemble name-check Primal Scream, Ed Rush and Aphex Twin as their influences, which has to be a good thing, and they play a live set of drum 'n' bass inflected electronica. Support comes from 88 Guava Seeds, and the fee for the fun is NT$400 with a drink.
Tomorrow sees Vertigo throwing down a house and electro set on wax and Ableton Live at Champagne 3 in the latest of their Digital Vibe/DJs In the Mix sessions. Cover is NT$500 with a drink; ladies get in free before midnight. Over at Luxy, it's Taiwan's only representative at Germany's Mayday festival, Reason, along with Taiwan's DMC champions in the Galleria.
This year's DJ Poll was won by favorite of the last few weeks, Kaohsiung's DJ Stan Wu. Congratulations to Stan. As of press time, Stan was unavailable for comment, though whether this is because he is celebrating his win with several bottles of champagne in a Jacuzzi or fretting over his acceptance speech is unclear. Hopefully, he'll be in touch by next week. Second and third places went, respectively, to Blueman and Glenn. In the capital, Marcus Aurelius retains his crown of thorns as the people's choice.
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
Pei-Ru Ko (柯沛如) says her Taipei upbringing was a little different from her peers. “We lived near the National Palace Museum [north of Taipei] and our neighbors had rice paddies. They were growing food right next to us. There was a mountain and a river so people would say, ‘you live in the mountains,’ and my friends wouldn’t want to come and visit.” While her school friends remained a bus ride away, Ko’s semi-rural upbringing schooled her in other things, including where food comes from. “Most people living in Taipei wouldn’t have a neighbor that was growing food,” she says. “So
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