It's happened again. Not five minutes after this column has bemoaned the lack of something, does it appear in abundance. Last week we noted the precarious state of drum'n'bass in Taipei: this week, no other than Suv — stablemate of junglist heavyweights Roni Size, Krust and Die — rocks up to Partyroom tomorrow night, either taking up the challenge thrown down by the Vinyl Word, or proving that a lot of what is written here is a load of old twaddle. Intriguing. But then parties — and genres — here in Taiwanland tend to be a lot like buses. You have to wait weeks for a decent party only to find everything happening on consecutive weekends or, as sometimes happens, everything raging on the same weekend.
Battery kicked off last Saturday with its opening night Gridlock, and the venue promises interesting things to come. It's a tight little spot and the small dance floor is probably why a "no parking" rule is enforced. The bar area is more spacious, with lots of seating and room for congregating, rather than pokey little booths where socializing isn't easy. Kudos goes to the management for charging a reasonable NT$100 for Heineken, rather than something more eye-watering. (When, oh when, will clubs figure out that breaking the psychological barrier of NT$150 is the reason why the local 7-Elevens do such brisk business on party nights?) Not only is the beer cheap, but the staff members are impeccably polite, efficient and friendly, which is a pleasant change from some venues in the city that employ proto-Neanderthals to prevent you from either getting in or getting a drink.
Keeping things cheap (well, cheaper) is Luxy, which has dropped its door damage by NT$100 or NT$200 depending on the time of entry. Good news indeed, and tonight is a particularly good-value-for-money event. After a highly-successful reign of several months, tonight is the final Sabbatical — at least for a while — and, to celebrate, Sabbatical are bringing back arguably the most well-received of their temporary residents, Soulutions. The lads will not only be putting down some choice wax, but they're also going to be premiering the tracks that were made as part of the Sabbatical CD project, where each resident holed up in the Luxy studio and churned out some original dance music. The whole CD is scheduled for release shortly, but you can hear previews of the tracks being spun by Coffey and Scotty Baller, two high school buddies re-united and back-to-back, and Hooker.
PHOTO COURTESY OF DARYL, YANG
However, the monthly resident idea won't be leaving the city just yet. MoS present Belgian house-mouse Caspar for this month, starting Saturday. Whether this is a stunning piece of unoriginality a la the earlier comments about parties being like buses, or just a simple adoption of a successful business model, is anyone's guess.
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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